Our 1500 Mile Train Journey Ends Today

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Geo: 41.0245, 28.9881

It's 1am and the train makes another stop at a desolate, seemingly abandoned station in the middle of nowhere. The sudden braking action of the aging train squealing in the darkness awakens me and I venture out into the hallway hoping to see a sign on a station to give an idea of our location. No luck. The guy next door is up too and we converse in a mixture of English and Spanish. He is from Mexico. He has traveled by train in Europe before but his first time in Eastern Europe and he's not impressed. It's certainly not like France, Switzerland or Germany. He says on his return from Istanbul he will fly. I understand. We talk for for 45 minutes and part ways. Mom is asleep and I return it bed.

No sooner did I fall asleep than the train stops. I listen to doors, voices, footsteps. "Passports", shouts the guard at our door. We present our paperwork. They examine it briefly, return it to us. After about 1/2 hour, they exit the train and we move on. I lay down for a bit but minutes later we stop again at another similar building. The conductor directs us outside to a dingy looking building. All the passengers, about 50, stand in line and the border guard behind a glass barrier inspects our passports and tells us we need to purchase a visa for €20 each. I know that. That's why had had the euros with me. No he says. Go outside to the right and purchase them. We go outside but the only light I see is the duty free store. I go there and wait for the Mexican guy I met earlier to buy 10 cartons of cigarettes. I tell them I want to buy my visa but he says to go further down. Here I look through a window to see some old guy sitting behind a curtain. Tapping on the window finally gets his attention and with as much enthusiasm as a dead cat, he says €40. Mom hands over the money which he hastily grabs and heads back behind his curtain. Somehow he leaves €10 on the counter and Mom puts it back in her purse. We got a discount! He comes back out with the visa stickers, we go back to the office where the guard sticks it on our passports, stamps them and back to the train.

In our cabin we make preparation to resume our sleep when another border guard comes in to search our luggage. I open 2 of our bags, smiling all the while and my smile or Mom's disgusted look was enough to end her search. "that's enough, thank you", she said. She left.

We're in Turkey! Now it's 3am and we're off again. This time we really we're fast asleep when the conductor banged on the door. "Off the train in 15 minutes!", he says. The last portion of the railroad tracks are under reconstruction and so the train stops 50 miles from Istanbul and we transfer to a bus. The bus takes us the last 1 1/2 hours to the train station in Istanbul.

At the station a taxi driver greets us, offering to take us to our hotel for €25. I know how far it is and it's a lot less than that. He asks how much we want to pay but I won't hire him. I find someone for €8 and he gets us to the hotel in about 10 minutes.

It's 9am. Since we're so early, I ask the hotel manager if we could leave our luggage. He was so nice. Our room was ready and we could go up early. Great. We went up and showered to get the train stench off of us. Now we felt better. We needed some medicine from a pharmacy and they were all closed on Sunday but the hotel manager found one open. We took the tram for 3 TL (Turkish Lira) and went downtown, got what we needed (no prescriptions needed here) and returned. Now off to the Blue Mosque, Undergound Cystern and some shopping.

I asked about a restaurant for dinner and the manager suggested a place full of restaurants. One in particular offers to pick us up and drop us back to the hotel free. Sounds good. The driver picked us up and took us on a ride through the streets of Istanbul like a maniac. I'm surprised he didn't kill somebody. The restaurant was great. Good food, music everywhere and lots of characters to watch. I had Turkish shrimp and Mom had sea bass. All for $45 including beer, appetizers, dessert and tip and transportation. Same ride back but through a scary part of town.

Back at the hotel, we walked around some shops still open at 10pm and then headed back for a restful nights sleep. We hadn't had one of those in some time. Tomorrow we board the ship. Our train adventure has come to an end.

I apologize for not posting more pictures but the wifi is not always available so I write the blog offline and send it when I can get back online. Pictures take a while to download from the camera to the iPad and then upload again to the blog. I will catch up on them when possible.

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Photos

Our train cabin for overnight trip
Roughly 6x7 feet in size, it's not big. I got the top bunk.

Mom's out while we roll to Istanbul
Sleep while you can.

Hotel Aristocrat - like staying with family
What a great place to stay in Istanbul. The people running it were fantastic, the room very nice and the location in the middle of the action.

Mom at the pharmacy
No prescription necessary.

Blue Mosque from our hotel balcony
As seen from our hotel balcony.

In the Blue Mosque - note Mom's head scarf
She can't come past the railing to the main floor - men only

Looking down into the Basilica Cistern
It was nice and cool down here.

Hagia Sophia in background
We never made it to this museum although it was just steps from our hotel. Not enough time.

She bought some of these covers at $7
This guy had good prices and near our hotel

Fish dinner in Istanbul + entertainment
Recommended by hotel and very good.