Heading back to Istanbul!

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Today we were once again up bright and early at 5am to head back to Istanbul. Apparently so that we could beat the traffic on the bridge getting into Istanbul but we all think it was so that our guide could catch a flight home! Either way it was early but thankfully we could just get on the bus and fall asleep for a bit. We just had to keep reminding ourselves that thank goodness we weren’t the driver who obviously had to stay awake the whole time! Well you’d hope! J

The drive was 11 hours with breaks every couple of hours except the first leg which he tried to go 3 hours! I was literally about to burst and had to ask him to pull over for a loo stop! Think 2 hours is def my limit of holding on-ness! It wasn’t the greatest trip actually. Everyone had queezy stomachs and one girl actually vomited on the bus! But we managed and made it to Istanbul at about 6pm not having to deal with too much traffic. We said bye to our guide and driver which was really sad L We had such a good time with them and the trip was amazing! The rest of us all decided to go out for dinner together one last time. We wandered down a street with restaurants literally just on our doorstep of the hotel and lots of them were all trying to get us inside which we hate so just quickly walked past. Then we stumbled across one which looked really nice and kate quickly scanned trip advisor to find that it was number 2 out of 696 restaurants in Istanbul!! Woweee we were in! So we all had delicious meals and wine and banter for the last time! It was a good night but we were all so freaken knackered that we were back in bed by about 10.30pm and asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow! We were sooo excited for a sleep in the next morning till 9am!!

It was really sad saying bye to everyone in the group but we have made friends, especially a few, that we will stay in touch with a lot. And lots are living in NZ so no doubt we’ll see each other again. We have had an amazing trip in Turkey! More than any of us expected in terms of expectation! It was full on and we are absolutely buggered but it was worth it!!

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