Yes guys, it is true. I have moved to Istanbul. Sort of. I'm going to explain,
but for now, I just want to welcome you guys to my apartment I'm here in Kadiköy
on the Asian side of Istanbul. So if you guys have ever been to Istanbul,
you know it's split by the Bosphorus Strait. Europe on one side, Asia on the other. Well I
am here on the Asian side of the city. This is where I live. And I've actually been living in
this apartment since February of this year, 2023. So it's been a while, but I figured it
was about time to give you guys a little life update and kind of explain what I've been up
to between all the stuff that you see on YouTube. But before I show you guys around, let's try this
tea.... Delicious. Alright, so let me give you a tour of my humble abode here in Kadiköy on the
Asian side of Istanbul like I said. Here is the front door, so we'll start from there like we just
came in. Okay, so we come in this way. Right here I've got my little shoe rack, I've got a little
table and a couch. Another tiny table.... To the right side, we've got the little kitchenette. I've
got my oven, my stove, my tea, Turkish teapot, still going so I can refuel. And we've got the
refrigerator. Right up here we've got some Turkish artwork that I bought in the Grand Bazaar here in
Istanbul. And yeah! Over here, oh here's another piece of art that I just bought in Baghdad,
Iraq actually. It's an oil painting of Iraq and I got to get it reframed, cause I had it rolled up
to take home, but yeah. That's going to be hung up in here somewhere. Very excited to get that hung
up. And then here are kind of some of my little treasures that I've collected along the way,
along the journey. First thing, of course, got to have a picture of the family here. Then up here
I've got two things from Egypt actually. They're both like these little tins. This one is really
cool. It's actually a chocolate box from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, so I think that's
really cool. Up here we've got some vintage Iraq tourist guides. And here is my silver YouTube play
button for 100,000 subscribers. And down here, a couple things from Iraq. We've got the genie lamp,
rub for good luck. And the ashtray. I don't smoke, but if you've ever been to Turkey, you know know
the Turks love their cigarettes. So anytime if I have a friend over or something, and they want to
smoke, that's why I've got the ashtray. Then up here in this cabinet I've got a few more things
that I've collected along the way. First of all, this is the floor tiles from the Osama bin Laden
compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Got a few pieces of those. You guys can see how I got those in my
video from there if you want. Up here I found this in a market in Egypt. This is a Saddam Hussein
clock. Give me one second. When you wind it up, his hand counts the seconds. So just a little
collector's item. And then here I've actually got another Saddam thing. This is a gold plated,
Swiss made watch with Saddam's face on it that he used to give to the generals in Iraq. That's
my my newest find. So yeah, just a few of the things I've collected. Continuing on, here is the
bedroom. So this is a one-bedroom apartment. Two rooms. I've got my wardrobe here with my suitcase
and some bags up there. Got my little bedside table, and of course, the bed. Not too much
in here yet. Still need to do some decorating. It's, it's very bare right now. But you know,
I want to collect things along my travels. And then here, got this big old window facing
out towards the street and the neighborhood. And we'll go out there in a little bit. Yeah! That is
pretty much it. Oh, and the bathroom, of course. Very important, cannot forget this. Here is the
bathroom. Laundry machine here, got a sink, we've got the mirror cabinets. And right here is the
shower, which I love very, very much. Great water pressure. And right here is the toilet. So yeah,
pretty much everything I need. By the time I signed this place, I was really, really wanting
an apartment, so it was a huge relief to have this, because I had been on the road full-time,
traveling non-stop, living out of a suitcase for like 2 years at that point, and I was
really ready to just have a home base again. Oh, and by the way, I have great neighbors. Look at
this. Hi guys. Merhaba. Oh, there's another one, chilling on the edge. The cats of Kakiköy. They're
everywhere. One time I woke up and they were in this tree looking at me through my
window. Hi guys. Okay, alright, yeah. Okay, so I live here sort of. What the heck does that mean?
It means that while I'm renting this apartment and paying 12 months of it, I don't have a Turkish
residence permit. Which means I'm living here on a tourist visa. The tourist visa for Americans is
only 90 days out of 180 days that you can be here. So it's like a rolling basis. Anytime you count
back 180 days from today, I can only have been in the country for 90 days out of those 180. Now,
the problem is, in Turkey, in order to apply for the residence permit that would allow me
to stay here continuously for a year, you have to already be renting an apartment. You have to
rent the apartment, and then they can reject you and then you can't use the apartment. So yeah,
doesn't make much sense to me. And that's exactly what happened to me. I applied,
it used to be really easy apparently, back in the day, to get that residence permit. Basically,
there are a lot of foreigners here and at some point they decided, "Okay, enough foreigners,
we're going to start rejecting people." And that's what happened to me. To be honest, it's very,
very frustrating, but I'm making due, and luckily I travel a lot anyway. So, yeah. It's not the
end of the world, but I'd really like to get the residence permit. Now, I want to head outside in
a second and show you guys around my neighborhood a little bit, but before we do that, I want to
thank the sponsor of today's video, True Classic. True Classic is a one-stop shop for men's fitted
shirts, pants, athletic wear, and loungewear. And to be honest guys, these are some of the comfiest
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get exactly what you're looking for. I've got a bunch of different colored t-shirts here with me,
and I've even got this really nice henley with the buttons on top. They also sell multi-packs
on their website of three, six, or nine items, so you can get a bunch of different colors in
one. I've even got these pants here from True Classic, and I honestly cannot believe how soft
they are. They really feel like sweatpants, but they have the look of slacks that you could wear
to the office. They look really classy, but they are insanely comfortable. And maybe the best part
about True Classic is the price. I mean, you get this level of quality, this level of fit, for such
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the description below, it really helps out the channel, and you're going to get yourself some
amazing clothes. I promise you're going to love them. Alright, now let's head outside for a little
bit and go see what's going on. Alright guys, so here we are outside. This is my neighborhood
here in Kadiköy. I think it's actually technically Moda, which is like a sub neighborhood of Kadiköy.
But yeah, I love it here. It's very close to the action, but it's quiet near my apartment, so it's
great. I actually have a haircut appointment today, and if you know anything about Turkey,
you know that the barbers here in Turkey are world class. So we're going to go there. Maybe I'll
speak a little Turkish on camera. I'm learning everyday. And as we're walking through the
neighborhood here I'll give a shoutout to two of my favorite spots. This is Mama Bowl, they do like
healthy bowls, salads, and falafel and chicken bowls and stuff, so I go there a lot. And then
here is a place called Everything Bagel. And they do New York style bagel sandwiches, which I very
much appreciate. A little taste of home right in my neighborhood. Guys, people here in Istanbul
love cats, and they leave like little homes and food bowls and water out for them, like all over
the place. You see this, it's very normal. And sometimes I like to come feed them. Merhaba. You
want some? Let's see. Do you like it? Come on, don't be picky. See, the cats on this street are
very picky because they're so spoiled. There's so many people feeding the cats here. No? Try it
there. Okay. There you go. Sometimes I come out here and buy them a little lunch meat.
There you go. You want it? There you go. Good job. There you go, right up here. So yeah,
this is what it's like to live in Istanbul. Especially in Kadiköy, apparently. Lots of
cats. Okay guys, so here we are. Suat Atay, my favorite barber shop in Kadiköy. Let me
know if you guys ever want to see a full Turkish barber experience video, because I could do that.
This is Bülent. Yes.
But let me know if you guys want to see that in the comments, and maybe I can try making a video only in Turkish.
Okay guys, so while we're here, I'll kind of explain to you why I'm living in Istanbul now. So basically, it just makes a
lot of sense for me because of the location, where it is in the world, it's very close to
the Middle East where I obviously film a lot of videos, and I've also been doing a lot of
tours there. By the way, if you want to join one of my tours, you can check the link down
in the description below. We've got more tours to Iraq coming up, and a really awesome trek in
the summer of 2024 to Pakistan. It's going to be awesome. But yeah, the location makes a lot
of sense for me, the airline flies everywhere, and I just like the country. I like the people, the
food, the language. I'm trying to learn, everyday I'm taking lessons. So yeah. For those reasons, it
made a lot of sense for me to live here, and been here since February.
Okay. All done guys, time to wash.
I just love this neighborhood guys. You can go down by the water, very, very close to the
water. There's a nice marina nearby. And just go sit there on the grass. It's incredible. I love living here.
Alrighty guys, got my fresh cut here. I think this is pretty much going to be the
end of the video. Just wanted to show you guys a little bit of kind of the behind the scenes, and
where I live, what I'm doing when I'm not off traveling and filming videos
in different places. But yeah. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'm probably going to film some more videos
in Turkey soon. I want to film more here, and I want to speak Turkish, and really kind of dive
in deeper here. So, let me know what you'd like to see from Turkey. Let me know if you enjoy these
kind of videos. Other than that, thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in the next one. Bye-bye.