We*re ın Istanbul, not Constantinople
It ıs morning here ın Istanbul and I am tired and this keyboard is completely messed up. I cannot find the apostrophe key, so I will not be usiıng any contractions. The i key ıs somewhere equally difficult to find, but as it is hard to avoid using it, I think this will necessarily have to be a short entry. Already this has taken me almost fıve minutes to type.
We never made it to Varna as we found out it would take as long to get there as it would to just go straight on to Istanbul, which is what we did. The train took over 24 hours to get from Bucharest to here. The Bulgarian border patrol was a nightmare, and gettıng a visa at the Turkish side took time, but it was worth it in the end. I was even asked to smuggle a bag of mystery contents across the border by a gypsy…how exciting!
Istanbul has been fantastic! The old city ıs gorgeous with its mosques and minarets dotting the skyline. The people here are incredibly friendly, especially the carpet salesmen. Every time we step foot outside we are met with about a thousand men trying to get us to step inside to see their carpets, lamps, jewelry, whatever. It is fun though, and it is customary to go in and sit down to have a cup of apple tea while they show you their goods. It is so friendly and fun, even if it is high pressure. So far I have not bought anything, so I am holdıng up all rıght.
We are planning to go to Goreme tomorrow by bus which will take a few days, and then we will probably take a ferry to the Greek islands. I have been told that Internet is hard to fınd there, so it may be a while until I can post again. I will definitely try to call if I cannot post to let my family know I made it there okay. We are keeping up on the news of the bombings, but I do not think we should have any problems. Most people here seem to think we are Australians, so maybe that will work to our advantage!
Tags: Bucharest, Istanbul, Romania, Travel, Turkey
Administrator
Leave a Reply