Day 11: Istanbul - Adana

Train

Left Europe late last night on ferry across Bosphorus to Asia. Boat goes directly to Asian Train Station, a grand 19th century German construction. Great way to enter a continent.

Toros Express to Syria was cancelled so I took a train to Adana in south east Turkey. Didn't get a sleeper but that made journey all the better. Passengers more conservative than people in Istanbul and all girls wear headscarves. Met family from Konya comprising of grandmother, two mothers and three grandchildren. One of grandchildren was an english teacher in her mid 20s. Propriety prevented her from speaking to me directly but we communited via her 14 year old male cousin nicknamed Alex (after a Fernebache footballer). Usual chat about family, girlfriends, football etc. His favourite player was Colin Kazim-Richards who I used to watch playing for Bury many moons ago. Amazingly this kid knew everything about Kazin-Richards' career, including Bury and Sheffield United. Ate a lot of their food and and gave Alex some sunglasses. He was delighted and kept on asking if they were original. I assured him that they were original Next, a famous London brand. Family got off at Konya. A few stops later a group of peasants got on selling fresh bread, apples and plumbs. Yummers. Great train ride.

Adana

Rolled into Adana at about 10pm. Adana is 5th or 6th biggest cities in Turkey but no tourists go there. This is understandable because its a shithole. I arrived in the dark during a thunderstorm and saw nothing but 1970s high rise decrepid apartmnet blocks. Thankfully I'd only be here a couple of hours before catching overnight train to Syria.

Disaster at Adana train station. No train to Syria. No guidebook for Turkey, no idea how to get to Syria or find a cheap hotel, nobody spoke English at train station. I was saved by a London lawyer called Guy who'd just finished training contract and had come to middle east to learn Arabic. He'd been down these parts before and we found our way to a bus station and onto Antioch. Arrived at Antioch about midnight, found cheap hotel and decided to go to Syria in morning. Found some beer near hotel and eventually turned in about 2.30.

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