A friend for life

A local encounter that changed my life


There are moments in life which are somehow inevitable, just meant to happen to enrich us. An eight-hour stopover in Istanbul when I was travelling from Shanghai to Zagreb for my brothers wedding gave me an opportunity to visit this magnificent city, which I already caught a glimpse of and fell in love with on a similar occasion.

There I was in a tram, early in the morning, going from the airport - no guide, no luggage, no nothing whatsoever among locals who were on their way to work. A man of maybe my fathers age was sitting across me and started a conversation. He could tell I was a foreigner and was concerned I might be lost. After I explained my somewhat unusal cirumstances we started talking about our lives and families like some friends who haven't seen each other in a while and needed to catch up. Since it was so early in the morning and everything was still closed, he invited me for a breakfast and a cup of coffee at a small hotel where he worked as a manager. After a wonderful conversation he gave me a present, a guide through Istanbul. It started to rain a bit so he gave me an umbrella as well, wished a safe trip and I was off on my way to enjoy the magic of the city at least for a few hours I had till my next flight.

Few months later, when I stepped into the hotel where he was working he just smiled and said: „I knew you would be back someday.“ But that's another story..