It s been an amazing 24 hours. At midnight on the evening of the 13th I was boarding a bus in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and at midnight on the 14th I was heading to bed in the northern Istanbullu neighborhood of Ortakoy... and there was a whole lot happening in between. 


I was able to fall asleep fairly quickly as we rumbled out of Plovdiv, but the next thing I knew I was being roused awake at 2:45. We had reached the border much quicker than I anticipated. The middle of the night... what a convenient time for an extremely strict border crossing. We all put our shoes and coats, hats and scarves on, and headed out into the cold night. We presented our passports and got back on the bus. I proceeded to take my hat and scarf off, then my coat, and finally my shoes and settle in. Two minutes later we stopped again at a rest area. Probably a good idea to go to the bathroom, so I put it all on again... first my shoes. Then my scarf and my coat, then my hat as I walked off the bus. I headed into the rest area, went to the bathroom and got some Turkish Lira... I was in Turkey now! I boarded the bus and again de-layered, ready for the final push into Istanbul... until again we stopped, again two minutes later... Dammit! I forgot, we had only done the Bulgarian border control, and had not yet dome the Turkish one... I slipped my shoes on and just threw on my fleece, expecting a quick processing. As I got off and presented the Irish passport, I was informed I needed a visa. 
I am going to try to paint a picture of the scene for you. It is 3:00 in the morning. There is nobody else crossing, just our bus. But the area is HUGE! we were going through lane 96, the only one open. They tell me I need to go to lane 84 to buy a visa. But the lanes are not consecutive, they are all staggered, so I was running all over this gigantic empty sea of asphalt and border gates, trying to find 86, worried that the bus is going to leave without me. I finally see a light on and run over to the little hut... I see the sign that says ‘VISAS’. The TV is on, but there is nobody inside, nobody around anywhere... I start calling around but nobody answers. Five minutes pass by, so I tried to open the door into the little office to see if I might be missing something. Finally a gruff Turkish guy calls out to me... He is probably a quarter mile down the lot, so I have to stand there in the cold waiting for him. He finally arrives, takes his time unlocking the office door, sits down in his chair and takes a few minutes to make himself comfortable. Then he opens the service window, of course I was waiting outside the whole time... then he addresses me: ‘What do you want?”. What do I want? What the fuck do you think I want? I want to buy a fucking Visa? Finally he puts the sticker in my passport and I hustle on over back to gate 84 where they stamp my visa, I then run over to the bus, where I need to grab my bag and walk through customs inspections. By the time I boarded the bus again, there were a lot of weary eyes staring in my direction... Sorry folks!

We pulled into the Istanbul Bus Park at 6:30. It was intimidating! Foreign cities are always intimidating until you figure ‘em out and understand the geography a bit. Luckily a nice woman helped me to find the metro station and led me towards the city center. Unlike the public transportation I am used to, the transfer stops here involve leaving the Metro stop, walking around some tight alleyways until accidentally stumbling upon a nearby station then heading to the final destination.

I arrived at the Sultanahmet stop as the sun was coming up. It was really fantastic, to be surrounded by so many relics so early in the morning as the tourists are all still in bed and the sun is casting a golden light on the the domes, spires and minarets. I was on the Golden Horn, a peninsula rich with history. Within a 2 minute walk there was the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, the Basilica Cistern, the Grand Bazaar, the Hippodrome, and the big fish of them all, the mighty Hagia Sophia, a building I’ve studied and dreamt of seeing for 20 years! Who’s got it better than me?

Istanbul is essentially divided into three parts (in the main touristed areas at least), two of which are European, and one of which is in Asia. There are the north and south European parts, the south being the Golden Horn described above, then across a river is the northern European side, referred to as modern Istanbul (modern being a relative term). Across the Bosphorus Straight is the Asian, or Anatolian side. The Bosphorus being the waterway connecting the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea in the Mediterranean. After walking through then grounds of the ancient sites I wound my way down the tight cobbled streets, past stick framed wooden houses on the hill above the sea. I walked clear around the Golden Horn, passing by the feral cats and men meeting for walks along the waterfront. I looked out to the Marmara sea and the Princes Island hazy in the distance, the Bosphorus Straight and Asia across the way and finally to Galata and modern Istanbul. I reached the Galata Bridge and stopped for a fresh fish sandwich, and noticed that a tour boat was heading up the Boshporous in a few minutes... why not?

What a great way to see this city. I sat back with a cup of tea as the boat skipped from port to port across the Bosphorus, Europe to Asia and back... and to think, my day started at a bus terminal in Plovdiv, Bulgaria! We took off from the port at Eminonu, past the Galata Tower, under the Galata Bridge and up the Bosphorus. It was great to pass by a lot of these buildings I had drawn in miniature representation just a few hours earlier. As we went further and further up the Bosphorus towards the Black Sea, the neighborhoods got seemingly wealthier. I was really surprised at how colonial... French colonial, the architecture felt. I imagined Istanbul a heavy, masonry city to rival Rome, but these villages were different. it was different, but beautiful. I couldn’t really associate with any other place I had been before. At times it looked very European, but then there were minarets dotting the skyline is every direction. And then there was the call to prayer, resonating over the entire city. This is the city where east meets West.

We docked back in Eminonu on the Golden Horn, and I walked over the Galata Bridge, full of fisherman catching anchovy and mackerel. I walked through the fish market and up the steep hill to the Galata Tower. I wasn’t meeting my couchsurfing host, Paul, until 6:00, in the northern neighborhood of Ortakoy. I think my long day was catching up with me at this point, and I was tired of wearing my backpack around, for the last 10 hours, so I settled into a cafe for a drink and to catch up on some things. I hung out for a few hours, then walked Istiklai, the main drag through Beyoglu. It was full of shops and bars and restaurants, popular, perhaps a little too much. At the end of the road was Taksim Square, where I would catch my bus to Ortakoy. It was a congested nightmare. It took an hour to go the distance I probably could have walked in half an hour... but I did get to go by the Bestikas Football stadium... and I did get to take a break from walking which was nice. I met up with Paul a little bit later, and with apologies, retired to the spare room... I was exhausted.