Istanbul, Turkey - Day 4

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My last day in Istanbul, and finally I went to do some sightseeing! I started my day off in the Topkapi palace, which was 20 lira to get in and 10 lira for an electronic guided tour thing. The guided tour wasn't really worth it, becasue the info was a bit blah and the numbers to hear the related info were often hard to find. The palace is pretty and located right on the water with lot's of pretty green spaces and flowers. But, the palace didn't seem all that spectacular. Some of the items in the treasury were pretty cool. There is this gigantic diamond called the school master's diamond that was traded for some small everyday things. It is pretty spectacular. But, overall, it wasn't at all the glamorous palace that history books led me to believe it to be. Of course, if you are in Istanbul, you should probably check it out. Though, the tour guide said that Dom Baqe palace is much nicer. I'll have to check it out.

After the palace, I went to see the Blue mosque, which is really nice. There are gigantic columns in the middle and lights strewn about all over. You don't have to pay, just be dressed appropriately and take your shoes off. They do have stuff to put on if you aren't dressed properly (head covering, arms and legs covered loosely). After that I went to see Hagia Sophia, which cost another 20 lira. It's really massive with interesting pics all around. And, you can see the combo church/mosque aspects which make it unique.

After that, I wandered around a bit taking pics, then went to the bus shop near the train station to buy my bus ticket for that night at 10PM. I took the tram back (1.75 lira per ride) to SultanAhmet and back to the hostel. I stopped at a pizza place next door to look at the menu, and this little girl cam up and said it was really good. Her father agreed. I asked where he was from and he said "Boston," so of course that prompted a convo. He was from Duxbury...what a small world. The little girl was really cute and was a big favorite of the waiters who toted her all around. I sat there and chatted with the waiters, one of whom was from Afghanistan. Truly, a small world!

After my pideler (boat shaped pizza) and fresh pomegranite juice (yum), I went back to the hostel to chill and do my homework. The amount of work required for these two businesses classes is killing me. I might have to drop one. While in the lounge, I started talking to this Columbian guy who is going to school and living in Queens and this other guy who is from South Africa, but originally from Zimbabwe. When he was 17 his family basically had to flee Zimbabwe and lost everything they had there. They restarted all over again in South Africa, but he says they were lucky, because the situation for those that didn't leave became dire.

Unfortunately, I had to cut the conversation short, and go down to get my taxi. I think they called it for the first time when I came down, so it was running late. Then, there was all this traffic, so I was a bit worried I would miss the shuttle. But, we go there in time, however there was no worry of missing the shuttle because it was 30 minutes late. I started to get nervous, so I asked the guy in the travel agency across the street. He told me it was always late, but after a while even he seemed to be unsure, so he called the number for the shuttle for me. The guy at the juice stand across the way brought me a stool to sit on while I waited. Everyone was really nice and helpful, they even helped me take my bags when the shuttle did finally come. the travel agent guy yelled at the shuttle bus guy and then they hugged, good friends again...it was kind of cute.

We got to the bus with an hour to spare. I thought I would get to sleep on the bus, but that was a very incorrect assumption. The buses are pretty hightech though. It was like an airline, each seat has its own TV screen and there is this guy that walks back and forth serving coffee. And, the light stays on for most of the time. This was a bit of the difficulty in sleeping. You couldn't stretch your feet into the aisle because this guy keeps going back and forth. The border crossing happened around 1AM and lasted for an hour and a half. We got off, got back on, got off, got back on...First to get out of Turkey, then to get into Bulgaria, and last for the bag check. The whole time we are freezing our butts off. But, then we were on our way. At about 6AM, we arrived at the bus station and I grabbed a taxi that knew exactly where Hostel mostel was...convenient...did I get ripped off...yes, but only for 4 leva.

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