- [Mark Wiens Voiceover] I think this is the lamb.
(upbeat drum music)
(mellow synthesizer music)
Good morning everyone,
it's Mark Wiens with Migrationology.com.
Not the best morning here in Istanbul.
Woke up this morning to news that there
has been a military coup,
or an attempted military coup.
Still not sure what exactly is going on,
but when we came back last night from dinner
at about 9:00 p.m., everything appeared to be fine.
The city was everything was going on well and normal,
and we came back to our hotel
and everything was fine, but it was about at 3:00 a.m.
when Ying and I were just sleeping,
and we heard these incredible booms, sonic booms,
and even our hotel, the entire building shook,
and the windows shook, and it happened a couple of times,
and I had no idea what it was,
but then I heard a sound in the distance
that sounded like a jet,
so I thought it was military jets,
so then I thought, "What could this be?"
so I checked the news and I figured out
that there had been, or there was a military coup
happening at that moment, at 3:00 a.m., around 3:00 a.m.
So, we've been up ever since, hearing things
and it is now about 6:00 a.m.
It is completely quiet
and deserted on the streets from our view.
We have a view of the Bosphorus.
Even the Bosphorus is quiet.
There are no boats, the road outside,
where normally at this time
there has been lots and lots of traffic,
is completely quiet and deserted.
I'm really not sure what's going on,
but we are praying for Turkey,
and we really hope for the best,
and also, Ying and I are grateful
that we have a safe place to stay.
It's about 7:00 a.m. now,
I've just been watching the news
and following social media.
Everything is still very, very quiet outside,
but they have announced that the coup was unsuccessful,
and I think the coup attempters are surrendering,
but it's still confusing as to what's all going on,
but my thoughts are with the people here,
and this amazing country of Turkey.
I think we're gonna go have breakfast now downstairs.
(quick synthesizer music)
It's breakfast buffet time,
and they have all of the typical
breakfast buffet dishes, but then
it's more on the Turkish side,
so they have all the little olives,
and cheeses, and different deli meats,
so I got a selection of different things for my first plate.
Whenever I eat at a hotel buffet,
I try to take advantage of some of the things
that I don't get to eat very often, such as smoked salmon.
Yeah, smoked salmon is just a wonderful thing.
I think these are little peppers stuffed with cheese,
and I also got some of this red pepper paste,
which I'm gonna add,
which I think would be a great idea to add.
That red pepper paste is not very spicy,
but it does have a wonderful roasted chili flavor to it.
Got my next plate of food now.
This time I went with a mixed plate
of many different things.
The omelette, the bacon, more of that chili paste,
that chili paste is awesome, some fruit,
and lots of tomatoes.
The combination that I've really been loving
is some of this chili paste, it has a chili flavor
but there's also some other spice in there, maybe cumin,
and with the tomato, this works brilliantly,
and then garlic and maybe some nuts in there too,
I'm not fully sure, but it's awesome.
Yeah that chili paste is amazing.
Grapefruit. That is nice and juicy.
It's about 11:00 a.m.
After breakfast, Ying and I just came back to the room
and have been working and hanging out here.
There's kind of been a, they reached a point
where the news just sort of cut off,
although I have heard definitely
that the coup was unsuccessful.
Istanbul still looks extremely quiet,
although there are some vehicles
on the road now and taxis and some boats,
and I think that public transport station is working,
but I'm not sure exactly the current situation
at Taksim Square, or at some of the areas of Istanbul,
and it's pretty hard to find information actually
so we're hanging out still.
You can see way over in the distance now.
Not sure if my camera can zoom that far,
but you can see that the bridge over there
where many of the events took place is now working,
and there are cars going back and forth on it.
(upbeat synthesizer music)
It's about 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon.
My hair is probably a little bit messed up
as I just woke up from a nap.
Looking out the window,
there are more and more cars on the streets
and it's looking more busy, still not very busy.
I have been in touch and in contact
with a number of locals from Istanbul,
and many have advised me to stay inside today,
to not go anywhere, so as much as I'd like
to go out and eat, I think we're gonna stay put today,
and also, even if we went outside,
I'm sure most of the restaurants or many restaurants
might not even open today.
So I don't think it's worth the risk to go outside
to go anywhere today.
The in-room dining menu.
Hello, can I order the Turkish Mix Grill?
Yeah, for one person, and then also spaghetti.
Can I order spaghetti with tomato sauce with chicken?
Thank you very much.
Alright, 25 minutes our order will be delivered to the room.
Mixed grill coming up.
(knock on door)
I'll get it.
Hello.
- May I come in?
- Yes, thank you.
- Hello, good afternoon.
And your spaghetti. - Alright.
I wasn't expecting him to wheel in the entire table.
I ordered the mixed grill.
Have some raw onions in the middle,
a grilled pepper and tomato on the side,
chicken, I think this one is the kofta,
and then maybe steak and a lamb chop.
It's a little bit smaller than I had imagined,
but it does look good.
I'm gonna start with the kofta.
Yeah that's like a little hamburger patty,
and then with really finely shaved onions
and I think some sumac in there.
That's a good lamb chop, that is fatty and juicy.
Let me break into this pepper,
and then I will eat a bite of this piece of meat.
I think that's beef, and then chicken,
and I'll get some rice on this bite also.
The rice is, I think that's tomato,
but also it has a chili flavor to it.
And this bread has been mopping up
all of the meat juices, so you can see
the flavor that is within this bread.
Break off a piece of that, get some onions in here.
That brings it all together.
(upbeat synthesizer music)
- (Speaks in foreign language)
- It's a hospital.
It's a good thing we bought those cherries yesterday
at the Egyptian bazaar from that nice man.
They're so good.
(upbeat synthesizer music)
I think it's pretty obvious that today
has been a completely unplanned
and a completely different day
from any of the other days so far that we've had
on this around the world trip for food
and I want to quickly just take this opportunity
to share a little bit about my thoughts
when it comes to travel and safety,
and also I want to acknowledge
that Ying and I are very grateful and very thankful
to have this amazing hotel room.
We are safe here, we have everything we need,
and we are very grateful to be here
in this current situation.
There are definitely places that are more risky to travel to
and that have a higher statistics
of it being more dangerous, but at the same time
a lot of media and especially
with the internet and social media,
sometimes not really over exaggerates,
but you don't get the full context
of what's going on in a certain destination.
You do want to pay attention to the news
and to what's going on in the world,
but at the same time, it's important
to get a wider perspective on what's going on
to any destination that you choose to travel.
And when it comes to actual safety,
I like to think that I have a mentality,
and I like to use the mentality
that anything could happen anywhere.
One could be just at home and something bad could happen,
or somebody could be off in a dangerous country,
so to speak, and be totally fine.
But at the same time, you really do have to
kind of use your own discretion
and pay attention to what's going on
and make your decision.
Another point that I'd like to emphasize
is that it is important that you feel comfortable,
and my dad always taught me this,
that it's important when you travel,
that you need to be comfortable
to the destination you're going.
I do like to emphasize getting out of your comfort zone
when you travel and having new experiences,
but at the same time it's also important
to be comfortable and to feel comfortable and confident
and so that really briefly in a nutshell
sums up a little bit about my thoughts
when it comes to travel and safety.
I think it's really important to know your risk
and to do your research,
but then to also be confident and comfortable
in the destination that you visit.
Again, I know that this has been
a completely different video and a different day
from the other days,
but I want to say thank you for watching today's video.
I don't think we're going out anywhere today.
I'm gonna end the video for today right now
as I'm just gonna hang out here in the hotel room,
but my heart and my thoughts go out to the people of Turkey.
We've only been in Turkey for two full days,
but on those two full days,
I've met many, many just amazing people,
friendly people, hospitable and genuine people,
and the food was delicious, the people were amazing,
and so my heart really goes out to Turkey right now.
I'm hoping for the best situation out of all of this
and also keeping in mind the victims
and those who have suffered through this situation.
Goodnight from Istanbul, Turkey.
(mellow synthesizer music)