Plan B: Istanbul for our final 7 days. This turns out to be the best idea we have had yet. However, we have nowhere to stay for the next three nights. After considering hostels on the European side for more than we wished to pay, we find an apartment in what seems to be a peaceful area of the Asian side with a young woman who rents her guest bedroom out to travelers. Via email we finalize everything in time for breakfast in the lobby and a Nescafe at a nearby cafe (I do not believe I have yet explained our relationship with Nescafe. It is very much a love/hate relationship. Turkish coffee (kahve) is far to strong for my liking, as I do not like drinking teeny cups of sugary mud. The Turkish stand-in for "regular" coffee is Nescafe. It is instant coffee that tastes kind of like hot chocolate with a coffee essence. For us coffee addicts, it is not an adequate substitute. Yet, we continue to drink it throughout the trip except for the occasional cafe stops where we pay a little extra for a cappuccino because we just need it that bad. Like I said, addicts.)
We take a cab out to the otogar to catch our 11:30(ish) bus to Istanbul. As with every instance of travel we triple check that a bus is in fact coming to this location at the aforementioned time to take us to Istanbul. As we wait outside on a bench, enjoying the sunshine, a friendly police officer comes to talk to us. When we mention we are from America he makes little guns out of his fingers/hands (like you do as a kid), draws them from his "holster", points and shoots, saying "Cowboy!!" If I could even tell you how many times I have heard that line when abroad, you wouldn't believe it.
As promised, the bus arrives and we hop aboard, front two seats as usual (I swear they reserve these seats for "special" travelers that don't know what's going on, because every time we bought a bus ticket they gave us those seats). And, as we do on every bus trip, when the attendant comes around offering us a drink we jump at the opportunity for some Nescafe. Do not ask me why (well, I know for me it was often in the hopes that the caffeine would make me more alert so I won't be so miserable on the overnight trips where I'm too tired to read but not horizontal enough to sleep. Of course, alertness doesn't really come with Nescafe because I'm pretty sure there is no caffeine. It was just a mind game.). Though we almost hit a cow (literally feet, maybe inches from the poor animal) we make it to Istanbul safe and sound. Now, we are expecting to be taken to the same otogar that we spent those lovely 12 hours in on our first day in Istanbul. But, there are 14 billion otogars in Istanbul (a gross exaggeration, but I don't care), so every time we stop we pester the bus attendant asking if it is our stop. We reach the final stop. The bus is going no more. And this is NOT the place where we were a week ago. For some reason this freaked us out, even though every other place we had been thus far was obviously brand new to us. After asking a bunch of people for the metro, we finally find someone who gives us clear instructions. We must go up. We were outside on a bunch of roads/parking lots that seemed to be under a bunch of other roads/parking lots. It was so blasted confusing. Once we get UP, we suddenly know where we are. The OTOGAR from a week ago. Boy did we feel like ugly, American idiots after we repeatedly argued that this was not the otogar they were saying it was...
We find the metro and a map and begin trying to decipher how we are to get from the European side of Istanbul, over to the Asian side, to an area called Kuzguncuk, where Figen, the owner of the apartment we are to be staying in, said to go. This was quite possibly the second worst experience of the trip.
It turns out we are to take a metro to the end and it drops us off in what must be the center of metropolitan Istanbul and we so cleverly planned to hit this stop right as everyone is getting off of work. Seriously, could we get better at this fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants traveling thing? Once we buy our ticket I walk right up to some guy who appeared friendly enough, and score!! He explains in detail, even wrote things down, how to go to where we want to go. He offers to wait and take the same tram as us, but we have such large backpacks and are weary to wedge ourselves into a tram so we decide to wait for one that is less packed. Of course that imaginary train never comes, so eventually we shimmy into a tram and off we go. Lesson #1: People are meaner in Istanbul. And by meaner, I mean your typical city-folk. The rest of Turkey spoiled us. Everyone is worried about themselves. No "I'm sorry" or, "You look exhausted, why don't you take a seat". Instead it was a battle for a seat. As soon as we see one opening up, it is a test to see who can get there faster. Luckily, we have a little extra weight to throw around and though speed is not in our favor, we manage to snag some seats by seeming unable to handle our baggage and accidentally pushing others with it. FINALLY, a break for our bodies. We are still sweating profusely and probably smelling lovely (maybe that's why we got the seats) but, at least we can put down our bags.
Finally, we arrive at our stop and we are parched and feeble from lack of food (aka peynir, aka the magnificent cheese). We stumble into the first restaurant we see and a very amused waiter comes to our aid, bringing us water and delicious food, yummy coffee (that I do not believe was Nescafe if I remember correctly) and some complimentary tea ( I think he just wanted us to stick around). Figen texts us and has a party to go to so she suggests a cafe to hang out at and she will meet us there later.
We thank our waiter and hail a cab. The driver does his best to take us to Betty Blue in Kuzguncuk. When we can't find it he pulls over, insists that we stay in the car and runs to the nearest man asking for directions. Once he understands, he literally drives something like 30 feet down the road, back the way we came, and drops us off at the doorstep. Adorable. So there are SOME nice people in Istanbul.
Sadly, this is the only photo taken this day. Tea at Betty Blue.
Figen shows up after we are on our second cup of tea and we hop in her sister's car and drive to her apartment. It was beautiful. The view of the Bosphorus with the European side across the water was simply stunning. However, we are exhausted so we thank her for picking us up and crawl into bed. AHH yes, another bed. I am one happy camper.
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