The night bus from Cappadocia wasn’t too comfortable…..we seemed to stop every three hours for about an hour or so, meaning the overall trip was about 30% longer than it had to be. Upon ordering a chicken donner at one of these night stops was also given a curdled yogurt drink and pretty much forced to drink it by the locals despite my polite decline to the initial offer:
“you English ?”
“yes”
“ I no English I Turkish boy”
“ gotcha”
“ you drink!”
“no thanks”
“ Turkish curses”
“ that wasn’t too bad”
“ you go now”
the Turkish “boy” in question was about 65 …………..
I was fairly sure the drink would cause some lasting problems but there was nothing to report by the time we got to Istanbul in the morning. Getting away from the most annoying person ever sat in the seat next to me was a relief. Had to wait about an hour to get a shuttle bus from the main bus station to Sultanumet, the area my hostel was in .
After checking in, headed out map in hand to spend a day exploring (was determined to stay awake until the night.) Visited the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia ( which was really good ) and the spice Bazaar. Istanbul is a really nice city very typical of Turkey. That evening went to an area called Taksim over the bridge and saw some really cool street musicians before watching an amazing sunset over the Bosporus. Ended the day drinking with some Mexicans while watching the 3rd place world cup game. Eventually crashed around 1am.
Next morning made it to breakfast which was a buffet and made enough sandwiches to last for lunch. Spent the afternoon booking a train ticket to Serbia and declining various offers to “ look my family shop?” “ yes please you eat something?” “let me help you spend your money friend?”
That evening met a cool guy from Singapore in the hostel who was on leave from the army and watched the final with an English girl and a couple of Australian girls…..A fair result I thought and now that the WC is over will be easier to avoid the beer…..crashed out at 4am after trying to find a Kebab shop that was still open in vein.
Next day went to the grand Bazaar and then had a much needed nap in the park while waiting to get the 10pm train to Belgrade. Istanbul was a cool city, the best since Rome, very westernized and very relaxed. Some amazing buildings make up the skyline and street food is great.
Turkey Summary
What can I say Turkey was awesome …not quite what I was expecting but very chilled and easy to travel in. Met some really cool locals and fellow travellers. Cappadocia was the best destination and will def try and go back there for longer at some point. It’s a tough call between Spain and Turkey for best country so far. Will have to asses with hindsight one I’m home.
Just over a month left to go and got eastern Europe, Germany and Scandinavia left feeling physically drained but spiritually fit. A good sleep on the train ( first sleeper cabin ) should get me prepared for a lot of city exploration in the next 2 weeks……Serbia here we come…
awesome! and yes, there's something about cappad., i had told ya :p
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