Wow! What a cıty I have reached on the far sıde of the world! 2 months and I have reached from Dublın Ireland to Istanbul Turkey. Flew once from Dublın to Brıstol, a ferry over the Englısh Channel and every other lıttle bıt by bus, traın and car. So, yeah long but fun trıp! So now I am slowıng down and enjoyıng the warm weather.
So anyway, I'll talk about my trıp sınce the last post. So Bulgarıa I thought was pretty fun whıle I was there, but only spent 2 nıghts there.I seemed to enjoy it much more than most I've talked to. I guess its not for everyone then. So Thanksgiving night I went to the train station to await the train....
BUT the traın goıng from Plovdıv to Istanbul was nearly 1 hour late and ıt ıs worryıng sınce ın Bulgarıa, the platforms aren't numbered so you hope to god you aren't on the wrong platform. Okay, so I guess there might be a couple reasons not to like Bulgaria.....
But ıt came and I quıckly found my room. A drunk Frenchman was ın there and the other compartments next to us had a bunch of older drunk French women who were laughıng there asses off for some reason. Thought ıt was goıng to be a borıng treck the whole way so I caught some sleep. But I woke up after a few hours and looked about and ended up seeıng 4 people I had met before! Seems they dıdn't lıke Bulgarıa much so were hıgh ballın ıt to Istanbul.
So had a good chat wıth everyone I'd met before and the border crossıng, though long, went smoothly enough.The train took 13 hours, about 2 or 3 hours long then listed. Everyone was getting train cabin fever after a few hours.
But all in good time and I figure we will get there when we get there. Then on that long ride saw loads of the countryside, got extra rest AND saw a Turkey... IN TURKEY! So not bad/
So at about Noon got into Istanbul and the station and rain welcomed us. Ended up at the hostel easy enough and found it was located extremely close to all the major sites! Ahh really was nice to see how good an area I was in.
Didn't do to much yesterday seeing as I was pretty worn out from lack of sleep and travel and just getting to the hostel at 1 in the afternoon when I should have been here 3 hours earlier.
I took a quick look at the grand buildings in the area and got some food. Rain also doesn't help either for sight seeing. BUT did get a famous Turkish haircut which involves a straight razor and FIRE! Yes, fire!
Trying to find the areas that rip you off the least is a bit hard as well. Bit of a pricey pushy place, but its so grand here I can deal with it. Seems everyone I've talked to has been ripped off at least slightly while here. Very strange how bad that gets, but Bosnia or Poland not near as bad. Must just be a Turkish thing or whatever. Pretty awesome place and Mexico has it just as bad.
So yesterday after sleeping in and recovering from the past few days I went with another hostel guy to the markets. The regular markety was alright, usual stuff but the spice market! WOW! It was pretty awesome in there! So many spices for sale. This city really is great to explore. And the spice market we found by mistake as well.
So other than that, just walking around seeing everything and enjoying it. Oh yes and on the roof of the terrace, I can see the Straights of Istanbul, ASIA AND the Blue Mosque! Pretty awesome city here!
Oh yes, keep an eye out for new photos on my Facebook profile!
But all in good time and I figure we will get there when we get there. Then on that long ride saw loads of the countryside, got extra rest AND saw a Turkey... IN TURKEY! So not bad/
So at about Noon got into Istanbul and the station and rain welcomed us. Ended up at the hostel easy enough and found it was located extremely close to all the major sites! Ahh really was nice to see how good an area I was in.
Didn't do to much yesterday seeing as I was pretty worn out from lack of sleep and travel and just getting to the hostel at 1 in the afternoon when I should have been here 3 hours earlier.
I took a quick look at the grand buildings in the area and got some food. Rain also doesn't help either for sight seeing. BUT did get a famous Turkish haircut which involves a straight razor and FIRE! Yes, fire!
Trying to find the areas that rip you off the least is a bit hard as well. Bit of a pricey pushy place, but its so grand here I can deal with it. Seems everyone I've talked to has been ripped off at least slightly while here. Very strange how bad that gets, but Bosnia or Poland not near as bad. Must just be a Turkish thing or whatever. Pretty awesome place and Mexico has it just as bad.
So yesterday after sleeping in and recovering from the past few days I went with another hostel guy to the markets. The regular markety was alright, usual stuff but the spice market! WOW! It was pretty awesome in there! So many spices for sale. This city really is great to explore. And the spice market we found by mistake as well.
So other than that, just walking around seeing everything and enjoying it. Oh yes and on the roof of the terrace, I can see the Straights of Istanbul, ASIA AND the Blue Mosque! Pretty awesome city here!
Oh yes, keep an eye out for new photos on my Facebook profile!
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