Advertisement
Published: August 9th 2005
Edit Blog Post
I finally made it! Before landing at the airport in Turkey, I saw the most beautiful view from the airplane. Red roof top apartments and buildings lined up the mountains along the Mediterranean Coast. Tears fell from eyes; I was so happy to finally see Turkey just as I had always imagined. I was excited to know I had finally made it to Istanbul: "The city where the continents meet." I knew the journey was yet to begin and it would be the most exciting adventure of my life.
When I arrived at the airport, I got my Turkish Visa. There were so many long lines in passport check and I thought I would never make it to the other side. After getting my passport and visa, I headed for the entry way of international flights. When I exited, I was so nervous to find standing before me hundreds of Turkish men (who all look exactly the same) waiting for family and friends arriving from international flights.
I searched and searched for Ismail and his two friends for 15 minutes. No luck. I was exhausted from jet lag and I
did not sleep at all on my flights. I was so scared, being in another country, not knowing how to speak Turkish. I found a phone where I could call Ismail. Unfortunately, I could not read the Turkish writing, so all I could do was wait. So there I am, standing in the middle of the airport in Istanbul, with two huge suitcases, the only blonde female in site. I sat on my suitcases and sniffled up a few tears and then someone tapped me on my shoulder from behind. It was Ismail! Finally, he found me. I was so upset that I could not find him after looking up and down the airport so many times. He looked so handsome dressed in a spiffy baby blue coat and nice black slacks. He is what I had been waiting for.
We exited the airport and walked to his car. It was his fathers Silver BMW 525i. His cousin Sebol and his other friend were waiting at the car. We left the airport and traveled through the beautiful city.
The next few hours were such a blur because all I can remember is
Welcome to Asia Sign
The other side of the bridge how shocked I was to finally see Turkey. It was so different from America. Most of the women were wearing their head scarves and long dark clothing. Although the country remains secular, the majority of the people in Turkey are of Muslim religion. The traffic was just as Ismail had described before coming to Turkey. Most of the streets did not have lines to seperate different driving lanes. There were no lanes! Everyone formed their own!! A three lane street became a six lane street in a matter of seconds!! I thought I would never survive the traffic, but I knew that Ismail and his friends had lived hear all their life and they were use to these crazy driving techniques.
We dropped off Ismail's cousin and friend and toured the city of Istanbul. The first sight Ismail had to show me was the Besiktas stadium where his soccer team plays. The stadium was huge and it was in located in the city centrum of Instanbul. We even went to the Besiktas gift shop where Ismail got me my first souvineir: A besiktas Tee !!
We then made our way to the Bridge where the continents of Europe and Asia
meet. This was a site I had definitely been waiting to see. On our way,
Ismail
gets stopped by the Turkish Police. We had been in Turkey less than 2 hours
and he had already been pulled over. *LOL* It was so funny. I remember him
telling me how he always gets away with tickets in Turkey, but I didn't think he
was going to this time.
The
police was on his motorcycle and we had no idea where he had come
from. We were getting pulled over because Ismail was talking on his cell phone.
There is a law in Turkey where it is forbidden to talk on your cell phone while
driving, just like some states have the same law in America. The cop write us a ticket about 100 turkish lira as far as i remember..He treat us so nice not as in USA cops.
This was so interesting to me. It took maybe five minutes and then I asked him if I
could have a picture of him on his bike*L*. He thought it was cool that I wanted
to take a picture of him, he wanted to make sure it looked good *L*.
The bridge was spectacular and it shook like an earthquake when the traffic was stopped on the bridge. It was such a neat feeling! To know that I was in the middle of the Sea about to cross into another continent. There was also another bridge which connects the two continents, but it was older and was on the other side of Istanbul.
And then I saw it,
Welcome to Asia We were about to enter the Asia side of Istanbul. It was so cool. Ismail had always told me he would take me to where to the continents meet =) And this was only the beginning.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0196s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb