New York to Istanbul - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Just a Normal Thursday

When the movie version of my life is released (with yours truly portrayed by either Adrien Brody or Michael Clarke Duncan...), the following scene will no doubt appear:

Int. Penn Station, New York City. Day
Schendo waits by the timetable information booth, weighed down with luggage and nicotine withdrawal.  There is a TGI Friday's across the frame which he eyes with a mixture of disgust and envy and hunger.  The camera swings as Chester emerges from the crowd with characteristic swagger. He has a bandage wrapped around his left hand and forearm.

Chester: Hey, we're going hostel hunting!
Schendo: What happened? Get kicked out of your apartment?
Chester: Yea [laughs]
Schendo: What happened to your hand?
Chester: I punched through the window of a Ford Escalade.
Schendo: [Brief pause] Where can I smoke?

The Scotch I had bought as a housewarming gift was conscripted into service before we met up with Sid (a fellow nomad friend who was in NYC at the same time) and hit up the punk rock bars of Brooklyn, my friends having lost none of their penchant for desperate, heavy drinking.

After riding the L-Train for a while, our spirits were refreshed, and we managed to book bunks for the rest of the weekend in a hostel on 113th Street where we collapsed- literally- into our beds.