After having anticipated this trip for a couple of months (and being in dire need of a holiday), we departed Ankara with much enthusiasm (but a few yawns) at 6:00 AM. Our planned destination for the day was the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, meaning that we had to cover in excess of 750 km and make one border crossing. Getting out of Ankara at that time of morning was a breeze, and the weather was clear and pleasant until we passed Bolu (about midway between Ankara and Istanbul). The sky became progressively greyer as we neared Istanbul, and by the time we reached the Asian side of the city it was pouring rain. Istanbul traffic is pretty unpredictable, but we had been expecting it to be moving pretty well at 11:00 AM... wrong! We sat in
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