29 September ’04, Wednesday. We tried to get off to the bus stop, before it got too hot, but 10:30 am just didn’t do it… It was already in the high 70 to low 80’s, and the humidity was about 90%….let’s put it this way, HOT !!! To get to our bus, we have to cross 2 off-ramps that don’t have sidewalks or crosswalks, cars traveling at HIGH SPEED, and then under 2 overpasses (one with a man and his “home” sleeping under the overpass) and then up onto the other side to find 2 more streets to cross that fit the same description. And then, thread your way through some high-rise condo’s to the next street. Finally, you are there to catch bus #81. 1 million lira each and you are on your way into Istanbul. This is an amazing “mega-city”… it never goes to sleep, and it never ages…it is still thousands of years old. The book says, “Straddling the Bosphorus with a skyline studded with domes and minarets, Istanbul is one of the world’s great romantic cities”…it really is true. As soon as you mix with the people, shops, markets, sounds, smells, and all, you find all of it quite intoxicating and romantic. The history tracks back to the earliest times with the Byzantium then Constantinople, the capitol of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire…and on…even to day, you feel it as a part of their culture and heritage. One of our goals was to find an internet café…we did. We were able to catch up on some emails (answering and sending). It is always great to hear from everyone…thanks. We also heard from Donna, and we now have our insurance problem solved…THANK YOU !!! We also wanted to see the other side of the Bosphorus, so we caught another bus to across the bridge and take us up into the middle of that side of Istanbul. We had a good day just trying out our luck on the busses of Istanbul and reading our maps. Now the big question…How do we get back??? Once we got back to the location of the first bus we took this morning, things finally went sour. As it was, we ended up taking a taxi back…remember the bus…1 million lira each??? The taxi…10 million each… Well, we are back, and we had a good time…what else is important???
Tomorrow….not sure yet
Tomorrow….not sure yet