A few days before the start of this long-awaited trip in front of me was a problem I did not foresee, which, for good or bad, made me change the plan – it turned out that in Decathlon do not have the bike I liked and although the model is marked as a “limited quantity” on their website, it is actually not available at all! So they offer me to wait 2-3 weeks until they order it. This, however, does not fit into my plans and i have to think immediately of a plan B. Somewhere I read that BDZ – Bulgarian railway, have a train to Istanbul, so without any hesitation, i check this information and after a few hours I kept the train ticket in my hands for the price of 66 BGN in a sleeping car with two beds.
On the day of departure, I was at the main station about an hour before earlier. Besides me there were twenty more people who were waiting to start their journey to Turkey. Most of them were young and they seem to like to travel while few others werw families with children who were likely to return home after stay in Bulgaria.
I notice the length of the train, but I understand from one of the train station staff that Istanbul’s sleeping cars are Turkish and will travel along the entire way from Sofia to Istanbul, only the passengers cars will travel from Sofia to Plovdiv. I show the ticket to the conductor, and he politely invites me to follow him to take me to my sleeping carriage – were i was pleasantly surprised. Inside my sleeping coupe i was surprised to find out how clean it was, and how good it looks everything – i had a mirror and a sink with running water, on a shelf above the sink was placed a soap and towel. On the little table in the corner I find white sheets with which I cover the bed and deservedly fell asleep.
The train departs on schedule and in approximately 4 hours we stopped at Svilengrad, where the border police took our passports for verification.
An hour later after the passport control we continue to our next stop – the Turkish border , were all passengers get off the train in a queue for an entry stamp in their passports. There is also a baggage check made in the train by a young Turkish border policeman.
– Open – tells me in English as soon as she sees my huge backpack. I opened and start taking off everything from the backpack on the couch. He insisted to see everithing what was inside my luggage and he stoped in one small boxe in which I packed small things. “Let me see what’s here?” – opens it, he looks carefully, something makes an impression to him, and suddenly as she looked at the box, he gave it back to me and came out of my coupe without even saying a word. I wondered what he had seen, but at the moment I looked into the box, I found out – A small wooden icon and a miniature plastic pig, a gift from my mother for health and Good luck during the trip.
I sleep a few more hours before the train arrived in Istanbul and I’m still sleepy when I’m on the railway station. It turns out we are at Halkali Station, somewhere on the outskirts of the city, but the railways have organized a bus transport that takes us free to the city center. From where, everyone is on their way to their own adventure. I’m a little nervy, but I take a deep breath and walk through the still-unknown streets of this 15-million-year-old city.
It was not easy to navigate this mega polis, but once switched on the map I knew where I was and where I was going – I was in the Fatih district and walked down to a main street that takes me to Hagia Sophia, which long ago it was a Christian cathedral, after that has been turned into a mosque, and today it is a museum that is visited by millions of people.
I confess that Istanbul is quite unknown for me and I need time to get used to it – the noise of the people, the street vendors that shout out laud to attract potential customers, the hustles and bustles, the policeman based everywhere… the city is so full of tourists that it is difficult to walk . Istanbul is not that expensive. It turns out that good lunch with a drink it costs about 7-8 leva.
In the afternoon was pouring rain that I have to shelter under a massive building and wait till rain go away. After half an hour the storm finally calms down and I manage to get to the hotel where I can stay for the next two nights. The place is not pretentious, but it provides me safety so I can prepare my things for the next days. After settling into the hotel, I quickly unpacked my stuff and left my luggage, and I started exploring the city on two continents – Istanbul.
The second day of my stay here is far more intense.
Today I have to find a shop where I can buy a bicycle and continue north and then along the Black Sea coast. I find myself in the alley of bicycles – the place where bikes are concentrated, and I look around for the best one, but there is something I do not like about the construction of the bike. Besides being secure, the bike should also have a rack on which to put the backpack so I do not have to carry it on my back. Most bikes are brand new, glossy and enticing, but they don’t have this so-needed rack and I concentrate my search for the prefect bike on urban models and soon find the right one.
In the shop where I was cycling, a smiling Turk helps me choose the right bike, and after talking, he tells me he orders Drag Bikes from Bulgaria and then sells them in his store. He also says that he has been to Svilengrad, Plovdiv and Sofia, and makes a good discount for me. We agreed to go back the next day to pick up my new bike, so there was nothing left to me but to look for how to spend the rest of the day. I decide to get on one of the Bosphorus boats and so I can explore some of my itinerary and enjoy the nice views. Such a views are definitely not missing at all!
The journey takes almost an hour, but the gathering moments and emotion are definitely worth it. From here I go to another famous place – Grand Bazaar. Me, like many others who want to enter the market, pass through a scanner and jump into the streets, full of people. The quantity and range of clothes, jewelry, bags, and sweet sugary temptations are impressive. There is no other place that you can find goods whose prices are always subject to negotiation and debate, so that bargaining becomes a national sport. On the other hand, it is rather stuffy and not very cozy. I feel trapped in so many people and corridors, so I go out and take a fresh breath of air.
It’s late afternoon, and I need to get some time to think about the plan for tomorrow. I have been so much absorbed in my plants that I do not notice the little girl who puts a pack of wipes and tells me that she wants to eat. I pay her a symbolic one lira and I take it not so much because i need it, but rather that my gesture would not be considered as alms . In fact, now that I think about my two days spent in Istanbul, I do not meet any beggar or money collector for any cause.
Besides, I do not see broken and unclean streets and parks, graffiti-painted buildings or other objects. Finally, I will finish with a video that is political, but I personally liked it very much because of the way Turkey is presented. It shows the majesty of the past, that reminds people that they live a good life because they live in a great state. The conclusions I leave to you.
This post was originally published on http://onecrazytraveller.com/turkey-first-stop-istanbul-and-the-bosphorus/?lang=en