This can’t be right, I thought, ascending the worn stairs, 17, 18, 19…how can there only be 19 apartments?!

Holding my breath like the trespasser I feared I may have just become, I retraced my steps downstairs.

Now what?

The airport taxi driver had seemed satisfied when, after reading my Turkish contacts’ address, he dropped me off at this apartment building. Sure, I didn’t know which buzzer to press to get inside, but the door opened anyway. Yet from the numbers on the address, I gathered there MUST be more than 19 rooms!

I didn’t want to accept that I might be wandering around a random apartment building in Turkey, the next stop on my mission to backpack 360° around the world in 180 days documenting Christian students’ university experiences. Yet reality refused to right itself. If the airport had offered Wi-Fi, or if SIM cards had been cheaper, or if the ATMs had let me withdraw cash, maybe reality would have been different.