OzBus 14

Today will be a nine hour drive to Turkey.  Breakfast is painfully scarce and doesn’t fill me with confidence, seeing as I would have to survive till we get to the border.  As we set off we are told that the border crossing will be a long process and that we should be prepared to have a good run around in order to get through.  With that in mind, we all try to get some rest as we leave the beautiful Plovdiv.

Upon getting to the border, we have to get off the bus and give our passports over before the bus can cross.  I guess they wanted to make sure we weren’t stowing  anyone in our bus.  Once getting to the Turkey side, we again have to detach from the bus and run back and forth in order to pay for our visas.  After about 40 mintues, we eventually set off in search of Istanbul.  The state of the road starts to show us the we are in the process of leaving Europe.

4pm and we finally roll into Istanbul, greeted by the sun and an amazing view of the harbour.  Orient hostel is located in the centre of the old district and, despite having very charming hosts, makes me have some reservations of our accommodation.  After a complimentary apple tea, we are shown to our rooms.  A four bed dorm that can only be described as “cosy” will be our home for the next 3 nights.  After settling down and locking our bags to the sewage pipe in our room, we set off in search of some culture.

Istanbul is littered with cafes/restaurants and shisha bars.  There are hosts standing outside EVERY cafe and restaurant proactively welcoming you into their place.  Very unnerving for those not wanting to be pestered or just trying to make a simple decision on where to go.  There are also a lot of mosques.  Lots.  We don’t have much time before meeting back at the hostel, where we will be dining for the night.

Traditional food is on the menu, along with a complimentary shisha pipe and some fruity shots.  10% discount on everything means we end up staying till 11pm, way after the start of our dinner at 7pm.  Not seeing this as enough, Liam and I decide to head into town for a few more drinks.  Due to the lack of time post arrival, we don’t know much about the city and what it has to offer.  Within the vicinity we managed to walk around, there seems to be nothing.  Ironically, the place we end up is opposite our hostel.  We settle down and start to chat to the staff, who are all friendly and sharing, the general theme with everyone in the city.  We drink into the night but my night is shadowed with the task of tomorrow as I will be attempting to get my visa for Iran.

Tags: Travel

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