The East

Sorry its been so many days since my last post.  I took the overnight train from Thessoloniki to Istanbul after getting stuck in Athens.  The cars were small but I had a sleeper bunk all to myself.  I met the two neighbors in either room and we talked for most of the evening.  Northern Greece is quite pretty lots of mountains and streams.  We all stick our heads out of the windows to feel the exhiliration of the speed of the train.  Some of us take branches to the face.  Our engineer has seen fit to make several stops along the way to get things such as dinner, which he had ordered ahead.  He has also stopped along the way to speak with another train for about 20 minutes or so.

At last we reach the border of Turkey at about 4 am.  Everyone out.  We are in the middle of no where in the dark at what looks like a run down farm building.   The Americans are the greatest in number and they try to work through them first.  20 us dollars will get you in, but for the poor canadians its running a cool 60.  I never thought there wouldnt be a benefit to being a canadian.  We had some of our countries other neighbors on the bus as well, a couple from mexico.  There were not allowed to enter the country because of fear of the swine flue and were forced to sleep in customs overnight only to be taken back to greece in the morning.

We arrived three hours late no doubt do to our incompetent driver.  Finally my longed for Istanbul.  The first thing I hear is the call to prayer permeating the city.  I get a cab with a new american friend we negotiate a shit deal to take us to the hostel.  The city is amazing and coming from Athens the streets are immaculate.  The neighborhood I am in is quaint and squat in the middle of everything.  I am approximately 5 minutes from the Ayasofia and Blue mosque.  From the rooftop bar I can see the city sprawling off into the horizon it is an amazing place.

I have been roaming the streets for days now and have technically been to asia now having taken the ferry boat from the other side.  I have found the Grand Bazaar to be the most entertaining so far.  4000 shops in cramped and narrow streets with tens of thousands looking for a good deal.  I hate to haggle however because no matter how good of a deal I think I get I am still getting ripped off. 

I will go out for more touring today and will update more effectively tomorrow as to the sites specifically.  After Istanbul is Budapest as I have decided to skip bucharest.

~ by brovold on July 8, 2009.