Dave the Nomad

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, Brad and I were duped by some shoe polishers pretending to drop their brushes in hopes of shining your shoes for a price. After thinking it might be a ploy, Brad and I watched the plot unfold several times before confirming it was indeed a scam. They were pretty happy people about the whole ordeal, so we decided we would play a trick on them.

We decided next time this happened we would pick up the brush and run the opposite way until we reached the next corner. About a day later, not expecting it, and completely unready a shoe brush was dropped at our feet. I shockingly picked it up, tagging Brad on the shoulder as I ran by him. He quickly caught on and we ran around a corner. As we peeked around the corner we watched a portly man in his mid thrities drop his polishing tools and sprint after us. We waved the brush around the corner and started laughing. He knew he had been had, and played along well. His friend across the street was bent in half laughing at him, and ashamed he returned to his stuff after giving us some high five. We realized we would have to repeat this, and get it on film.

Since, the weather was not the best for shining shoes the following days, our vigilance proved unfruitful as most people didnt want their shoes shined in the rain.

After a slow breakfast, and attempt at fixing Venecia’s camera, we decided that since a lot of places would be closed and the weather was miraculously nice it was the perfect set-up for shoe polishers to be out and about. We had been scouting our street from before for sometime as it clearly was a prime target area, not directly by tourist attractions, but between several, and only a block or two from some hotels.

We walked by, camera ready, pretending to not pay attention to their ploys as oblivious as possible. The first pass was useless as the timing was all wrong. Feigning lost, we turned around, and he took the bait. He dropped the brush, we pulled the camera out and ran the other way. Ironically, this was an area Brad and I thought would be perfect as their was a small corner to hide around. We all ran there laughing hysterically, waiting for him to chase us down. One minute, two minutes. We realized he got him too good. He had no idea where we were.

Brad and I had wanted to make two videos, one stealing it, and then later quietly taking it, pretending we had no idea he dropped the brush, and when he approached us pretend to shine his shoes and use his ploys on him. Since, he didnt run after us, we returned to him. Again, camera ready, and Brad instead of giving the shoe brush back right away, starts shining his shoes, telling him about his bad knee, and sick sister at home. Asking for money. Our guy was laughing, and shamefully was a good sport about the whole deal. His friends refused to take a picture with him, but were almost crying from laughing so much.

It was the best birthday present I could’ve received, and a great way to spend my last few hours in Istanbul before heading off. I’ll let you know when I post the videos.

Until then here are some pictures: