Aug 26th, Pomarie to Istanbul

8/26     Monday

I know a seven hour bus ride sounds like hell, but we seem to be able to take it in stride. The bus is comfortable, much more leg room than an airplane, plus there's scenery to see. There are DVD players for every seat, with ten movies available, unfortunately all in Bulgarian. The bus stewardess makes sure everyone has their designated seat, and passes out snack cakes and coffee, water or juice. We have three rest stops along the way as well.

The bus hits heavy traffic coming into the city before arriving at the “Central” bus station in Istanbul around 7:30pm. Traffic out of the city is pretty much at a standstill for miles. We are happy to see that we’ve parked in front of the bus line’s ticket office, so we can buy next week’s tickets without making a trip back here. Good thing, because it turns out to be more than a half hour on the highway to get into the city proper. Evrim, our host, answers our phone call and talks with a taxi driver to arrange our ride. We have no Turkish cash, so he’ll pay the driver for us.

The ride starts out tame enough, edging through the traffic at the bus station, but as soon as we hit the more open highway, we’re flying. Drivers take the lane lines more as “suggestions” than actual lanes, and the opportunities for accidents are everywhere. I remind myself that the driver really doesn’t want to crash any more than we do. We are realizing how far out the station is as we keep driving and driving, past big hotels and malls and apartments. We get off onto the side streets, and the driver calls Evrim for more directions. The streets are narrow and twisting and hilly. Amazingly, we get to a corner where Evrim’s waiting for us.

The apartment is gorgeous. It’s on the fifth floor, very open and stylish, with a beautiful view of the busy harbor in the night. Evrim is so hospitable, taking time to show us everything, googlemapping the sights, making sure we have everything we need. He’s a young man, working for a software company. He even offers us the use of his Vespa, but after seeing how the traffic is here, we would never consider driving ourselves. You’d have to be crazy.

Evrim takes a small bag and leaves us. Normally he lives here, although you’d hardly know anyone lives in the apartment, because his style is hip minimalism. It’s a relief to be free of the usual knick-knacks that clutter everything. The give-away is the kitchen, which has good knives and lots of pots and pans. Evrim obviously cooks for himself. We also have a full washer and dryer, most unusual. We raid his fridge for dinner, since he has left some things here. Eggplant, cheese and eggs in a burrito, on the terrace, with a stunning nighttime view of the river.

 

 1 Video Included

Bus Pomarie to Istanbul