- [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)
