2022 World Tour – Istanbul, Turkey
Hello from Istanbul, my 58th and last and final stop on the trip. Skipping the summary and history as I’ve already done it in Marmaris.
I’ve finally caught up on my trip reports and am sitting in the lobby of my hotel in Istanbul, checked out and heading to my airport shuttle bus in a few hours. I’ve had a great adventure on the trip, but it’s time to go home. Partly from travel burnout, partly to kick off my move to Barcelona.
Since I was already here in 2015 and did all of the touristy spots, I spent a very relaxing time not trying to cram a bunch of things into the few days I have left here. I’ll give you a brief overview of what I did and then sign off.
Leaving Izmir I decided to take a taxi to that distant bus station. An online taxi calculator said it should be about 35 but by the time we got there the meter read 82 so I handed him 100 and he gave me back 10. When I objected, he waived the parking card we got as we entered the bus station. Whatever dude, I’m over it. The bus station is a massive hall with probably 50 ticket desks, each one with huge colourful signs above. A quick scan shows no Flixbus but I do see a KamilKoc, that’s the bus I arrived on which I also booked with Flixbus. As I walk up I see the lady is wearing a jacket with the Flixbus logo, so I say I’m on the 10am to Istanbul, she says go to #22. As I walk to it, I realize there are 74 bus slots here, wow! I had an empty seat next to me for the 6.5 hour ride. An attendant came up the aisle with an airline-like tray, offering juices and cookies, sweet! Istanbul has three major bus stations so I had to make sure I got off at the right one, Esenler. It has a Metro station right inside the bus complex so I went down, bought my ticket, on the subway then a bus, then rolled to my hotel.
You may recall I have this concept called The Last Insult. No matter what’s going on, the Universe will give you one last kick in the balls, and for my hotel travails it’s of course my last hotel check-in. At the hotel door I found it locked and nobody sitting at the desk I could see through the glass door. I banged, shouted, tried to call, and messaged through the Expedia chat system. 10 minutes later a kid comes up and walks me around the corner to another hotel run by the same guys. They check me in then walk me back to the original hotel and give me the code for the front door keypad. Then he gave me the choice of two rooms on the ground floor, one smells like mold and has a window to the busy street, the other smells good and has a window to a dead space between buildings littered with garbage. I chose the non-toxic air. Whatever dude, I’m over it.
I rested a bit then did the short walk to the pedestrian shopping street that goes up to Taksim Square. It has tracks for an antique trolley that rolls by every now and then. Had a chicken Caesar salad as I desperately need some green stuff in my diet. Smokers absolutely everywhere, worse than Greece.
Over the next few days I went back to the Grand Bazaar and its gold, jewelry, rugs and sweets. I found the local electronics neighbourhood, about a dozen shops with lovely little components, but a far cry from Baan Mo in Bangkok. Had ravioli cinco formaggi and a glass of white wine at a very nice sit-down Italian restaurant and somehow paid an extra tl20. When I asked about it he said it was for the table, my plate, the salt & pepper. Whatever dude, I’m over it. I met up with a friend from Hua Hin who now lives in Singapore but was in Istanbul on business. She recommended a Thai restaurant, a hamam and two nice locations to walk around. The nights are chilly here but I’m feeling good in just a SpaceX logo golf shirt. I decided to take a train across to the Asia side and about an hour west to see the seaside scenery. It’s totally weird to go from a subway station in Europe to the next subway station in Asia! I got out at Maltepe Beach, with a massive park with hundreds of picnic tables, a skate park for the youts and a very long walking and cycling path along the waterfront. Walked back to the train station and its line of restaurants, went into a place and had a fruit waffle. I went to the hamam and had my treatment from a Thai lady, excellent procedure. Walked up to Taksim Square to go to the Thai restaurant but came upon thousands of people and hundreds of police with barricades set up everywhere. Turns out it’s Republic Day and Taksim is a major point of the celebration. Huge video screens and loud music blasting – from Zeppelin & Pink Floyd for some reason, so I enjoyed it. Had delicious Pad Thai Kung at the Thai restaurant, looking forward to overdosing on my return.
One major task is to map out my trip to the new airport, which is 40 km northwest of the city. They’re working on a direct Metro line to it, but it’s two years late! Everything I read said get the strangely-named HVIST-16 bus from Taksim Square, but not *where* in Taksim Square, it’s a huge place. Even the airport web site itself doesn’t say where to go. I got bad directions from three people until I found an information booth in the underground Metro station, they said to walk to the Point Hotel and there it was! Half a kilometer away from the main part of the Square. Ugh. The helpful ticket man said I must buy my ticket tomorrow and it costs âº67 to take the 90 minute ride – we must hit some other stations along the way for it to take that long. I added a marker, description and pictures on Google Maps to show it clearly.
So now it’s my last morning and I’ll post this, get a leisurely lunch and head for the bus. Next brief update will be from Bangkok and then when I’m finally home tucked into my bed in Hua Hin.
Thanks to all of my loyal readers who have supported me on this great adventure.
Is Istanbul worth a visit? Oh yeah. It’s a huge city but there is so much to see and do and eat. It’s easy to get around on public transport (when the bus shows up) and the prices are super reasonable.
Next Stop: Home!
