Blogs from Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 187

My journey started on August 20th, 2005. I came to Turkey. First time to a foregin country..and since I didn't dispose of so much money, I travelled by train. It was a 24 hours journey...and so it started... One sunny and extremely hot day in Istanbul, 9 am. The train stopped in a dusty train station called Sirkeci that looked like in the old English movies. First shock: the Turkish language..seemed like some stones hitting each other in people's mouths...men screaming, luggage grabbing, weight carrying. I was with another Romanian friend, Anca. We were supposed to be English teachers in a city called Eskisehir, somewhere away..about 6-7 hours by train. What we didn't know was that nobody was there to wait for us. We had to manage. Outside the train station we saw something amazing: ... read more

Four hours later than expected I arrived in Istanbul. It's very nice here, a real change also compare to Budapest. No more churches but only mosques with minaretts. And the imam is singing very early and many times a day to call for the prayer. Organisatıon oi an Iranian visa seems quite difficult, but I will try. ... read more

Arriving at Atatürk airport late at night, full of tired travellers. Some going home, some going on their German August holidays and me, on my own now for the next..... Who knows! A Turkish mother on the plane asked where am I going, I said "Australia on my own". She replied "Won't that be boring??" I hope not. Picking up the Metro and a tram to Sultanahmet was easy, just the idea of 2 types of money was tricky. I bought my Metro ticket for 1.10 YTL and my tram ticket for 1.100.000 Lira. It can be a little worrying when you are a bit tired. Checked in to the originally named Istanbul Hostel in a part of town I completely missed last time I was here. I can't see how, this is backpacker madness here, ... read more

So, we are back in the United States… and not a second too soon. We had such a wonderful trip, but there is something about home that you just can’t beat. Maybe the key to that equation is the ability to communicate with other humans. The language barrier really does start to affect your perception of an experience after a while. At first its great, but after a while it really gets old. Like when you order at a restaurant, you basically are spinning the wheel on what you will actually get. It’s funny - but it gets old. So while still in Turkey, I had been telling Tucker all along that it is not a great idea to eat what we call “street meat.” It is basically gyro-type sandwiches that you can buy for the ... read more

Laura is wrıtıng a message now as I set up the photos.... read more