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Sunday 1 April 2018

The Final Countdown. Day 1: Berlin - Istanbul

Friday was largely spent cleaning the apartment and thinking:
"Why didn't I do this earlier and more frequently so it wouldn't be this awful?"
and
"How much do I really need my deposit back...?"

We would be staying our last night in Berlin  with Sam and Steve, who very kindly offered to let us stay. When we finally finished cleaning, Steve came to our house to help carry all of the things we were offloading - I mean gifting - to them and help us back to his apartment. Good conversation, flammkuchen, wine and bier followed and soon it was time to head to bed.

The next morning, Dan and I repacked the mess we had made of our bags and after a lovely breakfast with Sam and Steve, and our final goodbyes, we made our way to the airport. It was pretty uneventful - the trains were a bit iffy but we found a relatively different straight forward solution. On the journey we farewelled the sites we could see from the window - the Dom, the Spree, and reminisced about what we did and where we were going at the various stations.

At the airport, bag drop, customs and boarding were all simple and smooth (despite me carrying all the technology - thankfully they didn't want to check anything!) and we were through. We were assigned an aisle and a window seat with someone in between us, but they kindly changed so we could sit together.

The flight was uneventful, and customs was a breeze. They opened the line up ahead of us and we were annoyed that a lot of people pushed infront, but then we spotted a desk that was hidden behind a pillar and ended getting through border security within minutes. Not a word was spoken! Our bags were almost first off too so our next hurdle was figuring out how to get from the airport on the Asian side of Istanbul to the European side of Istanbul where we were staying.

We knew we needed an e10 or e11 bus to get to the ferry terminal but we also knew we needed to get a travelling card, similar to an oyster. We finally found the machine but couldn't figure out how to use it. Eventually (after a long queue formed) we got it into English and quickly put money onto our new Istanbulkart. Hurrah!

An e10 was already waiting but it was stuffed full of people, so we decided to just wait it out until the next one. While we were waiting, we saw a bus leaving, door open, and people still running up and jumping onto the moving bus.

Shortly after an e11 arrived and we were one of the first people on. Beeped our card (we both can use the same card) and got ourselves a seat up the back where our luggage would fit better. The journey was uneventful but quite long - about an hour, and towards the end the traffic started to get really congested.

Things I noticed as we were driving along:

  • the bus was playing cat videos and other cute animal on the screens next to the stop information. This was very enjoyable!
  • the highway was lined with well manicured topiary and gardens
  • lots of new and crazy buildings and skyscrapers are being built, some looked amazing
When we got to the ferry port, we discovered there were a lot to choose from - and we weren't entirely sure what to do. We spotted one with the area we figured we needed, it had an Istanbulkart machine on so we jumped on and hoped for the best. As it took off, the view behind and especially in front was rather spectacular - with the European side beautifully backlit by the setting sun. The ferry started to turn away from where we thought we had to go, and so we began collecting our belongs to get off and figure out what to do next. However, Dan noticed that not everyone was getting off, and that maybe there were more stops? So we stayed on, and Lo and behold the ferry backtracked and deposited us right where we expected to be. 



Oh my god, the people! The dock was just awash with people and amazing smells, and I could see mosque after mosque poking above the houses. Our bags were getting terribly heavy so we decided to just go straight to our hostel.

Dan expertly guided us to where the hostel should have been - but we couldn't find it. People were trying to talk to us but I'm a little untrusting and just smiled and didn't respond. Turns out one of those people *owned* the hostel and had been looking for us. Oops. He had tried English and Spanish and other languages and we had just ignored him - how terrible! He collected us and took us up to our room at Istlinai Hostel New.

Our room is pretty dingy but the bed seems comfortable, and while there light doesn't work very well, it's a beautiful Turkish lamp so that's nice. The shared bathrooms are hilarious - on my first visit I walked in wearing socks, and wondered why my feet got wet on the carpeted bathroom. Then I realised that the shower just falls straight onto what appears to be red astroturf.

After a short relax, I googled cheap eats in Istanbul and found a place called Ortaklar Kebap Lahmacun which had over 1000 great reviews and was only a short walk away. It was actually excellent. The kitchen was on the ground floor and more seating was upstairs. Once we were seated and had ordered, some delicious fluffy toasty warm bread was delivered with a spicy dip. I could have eaten that bread all day!

Our mains were delivered - I got the eggplant kebab and Dan the chicken kebap, both tasty and far too big. The peppers were surprisingly hot and we had to stuff ourselves with more bread to ease the burning. Afterwards, they offered us tea so we chose some apple tea - turns out the bread and the tea was complimentary, and it total we spent €10, including a tip, for dinner. Well in the price range!




It's not advised to drink the tap water in Turkey, so on the walk home we grabbed ourselves a few litres to get us through tomorrow. Now it's almost time for bed - after going through our bags I discovered one item in the toiletries bag had exploded (something had to, right?). It could have been worse tho - it was my tiny bottle of perfume, so how the room and our toiletries smell lovely.

This has been much longer than I should have written - I don't know if I'll be able to keep this up but I will certainly try!

Til next time,
xx


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