We took Metro bus for 40 leva (app. 20 euro) one way leaving Burgas at 11:30pm. Actually, the bus left at 11:20 pm. When we came to the boarders with Turkey, I just realized how great it is live in Schengen area, everything is much faster. After six hours of drive we arrived to Istanbul.First thing which caught my attention were their tickets, better to say coins, because they don’t have paper tickets – environment friendly thing :) The other thing was that I can use euros as well as Turkish lira. Good for me, since I didn’t bring any of their money. It is pity that the shops Czech Rep., which has been in EU for more than 5 years, don’t accept euros as much as they do in Turkey which would like to enter the Union. I was told how dirty Istanbul is. At least the centre of the city is not and everything was working like in Europe. I mean, e.g. the underground was more modern and cleaner than in Prague or London.
In contrast to Europe, there were „homeless“ dogs and cats in the city centre. But were not as skinny as they are here, in Burgas. I sent a text to my dad if he didn’t want me to bring him a dog (he wishes to have a big dog, I think he might like Istanbulian ones). The answer was: „Rather not. Take care of yourself, so mum wouldn’t be right.“ My mum was crazy about me going to Istanbul and probably saw me either with a strange disease or in a house of some horny Turk.
If only she knew that there are more tourists than Turks in the centre of Istanbul. It might have been because we were there when muslims celebrate Ramadan, so it’s better sleep during the day, so one won’t get so hungry :)
If only she knew that they don’t sell drinks with ice there, so I couldn’t get any disease from the water.
After we checked in in our hostel (in 6th floor, no lift!), we had some tea and then took a ferry to Asian part of Istanbul. So now I can say I’ve been to Asia and it looks pretty the same as Europe :)) And after that some of us went to see Topkapi palace and the others went to see the mosques. The palace was huge, more than 200 rooms (which looked pretty the same) and also harem. The bed, the ottoman slept in, was much larger than what we know from European chateuas (I don’t know how to spell this word). A lot of really expensive things as well as sweating tourists were there. I quite liked it. In fact I came there to see the harem, but one had to pay 15 liras to get there and we didn’t want to spend this money on it, because if there were only paintings and rooms as we had already seen, it wouldn’t be so interesting.
After that we decided to see the Blue Mosque and also Hagya Sofya, since it was pretty close to the palace. It was only me and Viktor who entered the Blue Mosque, because Karin has already been there. They borrowed us a piece of cloth to cover our legs. It was huge space with really nice walls. I enjoyed the carpet so much, it was so soft!
When we came out, Karin has already left and her mobile phone stopped working. The problem was that we didn’t know where we live. Seeing some places several times (some „funny“ Turks gave us wrong directions), we managed to get back home and get some sleep before going out at night.
The next day, Karin, Viktor and Martin took a sightseeing tour by bus, Polish fraction went to see the mosques (they didn’t come in when they were there the day before) and I went to see the underground basilica. It was magnificent. It was huge and well-lighted, and also a bit flooded, so one could see fish in water. If there hadn’t been any Spanish and German speaking tourists, it would have been even better. I enjoyed this thing so much!
In contrast to Europe, there were „homeless“ dogs and cats in the city centre. But were not as skinny as they are here, in Burgas. I sent a text to my dad if he didn’t want me to bring him a dog (he wishes to have a big dog, I think he might like Istanbulian ones). The answer was: „Rather not. Take care of yourself, so mum wouldn’t be right.“ My mum was crazy about me going to Istanbul and probably saw me either with a strange disease or in a house of some horny Turk.
If only she knew that there are more tourists than Turks in the centre of Istanbul. It might have been because we were there when muslims celebrate Ramadan, so it’s better sleep during the day, so one won’t get so hungry :)
If only she knew that they don’t sell drinks with ice there, so I couldn’t get any disease from the water.
After we checked in in our hostel (in 6th floor, no lift!), we had some tea and then took a ferry to Asian part of Istanbul. So now I can say I’ve been to Asia and it looks pretty the same as Europe :)) And after that some of us went to see Topkapi palace and the others went to see the mosques. The palace was huge, more than 200 rooms (which looked pretty the same) and also harem. The bed, the ottoman slept in, was much larger than what we know from European chateuas (I don’t know how to spell this word). A lot of really expensive things as well as sweating tourists were there. I quite liked it. In fact I came there to see the harem, but one had to pay 15 liras to get there and we didn’t want to spend this money on it, because if there were only paintings and rooms as we had already seen, it wouldn’t be so interesting.
After that we decided to see the Blue Mosque and also Hagya Sofya, since it was pretty close to the palace. It was only me and Viktor who entered the Blue Mosque, because Karin has already been there. They borrowed us a piece of cloth to cover our legs. It was huge space with really nice walls. I enjoyed the carpet so much, it was so soft!
When we came out, Karin has already left and her mobile phone stopped working. The problem was that we didn’t know where we live. Seeing some places several times (some „funny“ Turks gave us wrong directions), we managed to get back home and get some sleep before going out at night.
The next day, Karin, Viktor and Martin took a sightseeing tour by bus, Polish fraction went to see the mosques (they didn’t come in when they were there the day before) and I went to see the underground basilica. It was magnificent. It was huge and well-lighted, and also a bit flooded, so one could see fish in water. If there hadn’t been any Spanish and German speaking tourists, it would have been even better. I enjoyed this thing so much!
Afterwards, I was walking back to our hostel (I guess it must have been 5 km), looking around, visiting shops, buying some clothes...Finding our bus back to Burgas was a bit chaotic, since the bus station was two-floor one and it seemed that not many people knew where it should be, so they couldn’t give us a piece of advice. Of course we managed, boarded safely and got back to Burgas, where we took a taxis to our hotel. We were quite surprised when the drivers asked us for 23 leva (about 11 euros) for 2 km! Incredible! We gave them the money, because we just wanted to go to sleep.
I was nicely surprised by Istanbul. I thought I wouldn’t like it, because recently I haven’t liked visiting big cities in Europe. It was maybe because it was different from what I know but also very similar.
This trip encouraged me to travel outside Europe, so hopefully I will be able to do it soon! :-)
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