I got to Istanbul via a 7 hour bus ride from Plovdiv. It’s one of the nicest buses I’ve ever been on, but it didn’t stop for breaks, other than a toilet stop as per request, but it got us to Istanbul fairly efficiently. I then had a bit of an adventure trying to find the hostel, but got there in the end!

Phillipa had bought bus tickets for Nathan and I the day before, so we all took the hire car back to the hire car shop and the person working there drove us to the bus station. We sat and had tea and I tried to find things to spend my money on before getting to the border with Turkey. Despite planning to get a visa on arrival, I decided to get an e-visa at the last minute and had to answer some questions asked by the border offical on entry into Turkey. I could see the first mosque without even leaving the border crossing and we eventually got to Istanbul after a fairly long and sustained drive from the border crossing to Istanbul. The drivers changed, but without many breaks, it was a pretty long journey from Plovdiv to Istanbul.

Once there, I said goodbye to Phillipa and Nathan and went to ask when the next bus to Taksim was. It turned out that the person working in the shuttle bus office didn’t know what the difference between 3 and 5 was, as I ended up missing 2 buses waiting for a bus to Taksim. Once I was at Taksim, it turns out the Google Maps is out of date and it was very difficult finding the hostel. I eventually asked someone eating a kebap where a particular shop was and once I knew that I was able to make my way to the hostel. Once there I met Alex, an Egyptian student studying in Turkey and we went for a kebap together.

Whilst in Istanbul, I did a lot of walking around and went to the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Istanbul University Beyazit Campus, the Fatih Mosque, the Basilica Cistern and the History of Islamic Science and Technology Museum. I also got the public ferry to one of the nearby ferry stops on the Asian side of Istanbul and had an amusing night out with Alex and (another!) Australian I’d met in the hostel.

I spent a few days in Istanbul before heading to Taipei.