Mon, 28 Apr 2003

author Liz	location Cricklewood, London, England
posted 20:15 BST 29/05/03	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

A Long Drive to Istanbul ( 3 photos )
On Monday morning we had an early start, as we had a long drive all the way back to Istanbul. Some people awoke with very sore heads, but Tim and I managed to be some of the first few at breakfast.
The rest of that day was spent on the bus driving North through Turkey back to Istanbul. We had a few breaks for food and toilet stops, and one ferry trip to save on some driving, but it was a pretty long day. We were on the bus for about 12 hours, and we filled our time by sleeping, eating lollies, chatting and watching the countryside, villages and towns roll by. We started off with snow-capped mountains around us, and then we were in flat green farmland, and finally drove through bigger and bigger cities.
At about 8 o'clock that night, Bus Number 5 (mark 2) pulled up outside our hotel in Istanbul. We were back at the same hotel we stayed in before we left Istanbul, a few days earlier.
We gave our fabulous tour leader, Kaan, a huge big cheer, because with all our buses problems and our food poisoning, he had held the whole thing together, as well as giving us loads of information about his country and its people and traditions. I almost feel like I now know more about Turkey than I do about Oz!
The tour was over, but Kaan, being the wonderful tour leader that he was, said he would take us all out to dinner and teach us more about Turkish food and Istanbul nightlife.
An hour later, we all met in the lobby, and then we piled into five taxis.
Now I think I talked about crazy Turkish drivers before - just to refresh your memory, these are the people who see a 'one way' street sign, and then happily proceed to drive in the opposite direction. Speed limits, road rules, red lights, you name it - on Turkish roads they are all optional. So when these five taxi drivers had us all in their cars, they sped off - and then decided to have a rally drive through some of Istanbul's main streets in order to be the 'winning' taxi, and reach our destination first. I have honestly never been on such a nail biting drive (and that's including the time Tim managed to test the speed of the old yellow Laser. Disregard last sentence if you are Tim's mum!). One of the taxis really did run a red light, just to try and come first, while another came a bit too close to knocking down a pedestrian. Our taxi driver was so intent on winning that he went past where we were meant to have stopped, and then realised in his excitement that he had forgotten to turn on his meter!
We all leapt out of the taxis, laughing, but a bit shocked and more than a little scared :)
Kaan took us to Taxim - the nightlife spot in town, and we went to a restaurant near where the fresh fish sellers are. The food was delicious, and we had so many dishes that its hard to remember them all. We started out with mezzes - a whole load of dishes of little appetisers - little fishes, potato, dips, beetroot...and heaps more. Then there was fresh fish which tasted very nice, a Turkish dessert that was a bit like peanut butter, fresh fruit, I could go on and on!
It was nice having Kaan there, because he could tell us what we were eating and what it was called and so on.
After dinner, we went to a local club with a band playing. Later on in the evening, Tim and I caught a taxi back to the hotel - much slower and safer than the previous taxi.

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