Sofia to Istanbul - Day 17 - Saturday 13th September 2025 - Balkan-Georgia Trip - Day 17/34 - City 14/21 - country 9/11
- eusts6
- Nov 4, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 10, 2025
I didn't sleep well. I heard a bin lorry arrive outside my hotel window, and the workers were making mocking sounds, but at this stage, I was paranoid. In the morning, the place looked far less threatening. When I arrived at the bus station, they were still very rude. I was asking where the bus to Istanbul was leaving, and I got a few grunts and a hand gesture.
I got talking to an English couple who now live in Wales, and we actually discussed how rude they were. It turned out we had quite a few stories to tell.
The bus opened its doors an hour beforehand, so I boarded and saw "WC Broken" and decided not to drink my water, instead choosing to stay dehydrated. I was very impressed with the bus, the first of many Turkish buses I was to take; it had tea, coffee, water, excellent WIFI, and you could charge your phone.
We passed some high mountains along the way and made a stop in Plovdiv where I used the toilet and had a sip of water. The city looked extremely run down indeed.
At about 16:00, we reached the Turkish border. We were ordered to get off the bus and bring our suitcases into the customs area, where we put everything through X-ray machines. One Spanish-speaking guy was stopped as he had an entire suitcase of rakija.
He was taken aside; I guess he was fined, but we were delayed maybe 30 minutes, and he lost all his bottles of rakija. I had the time to figure out that I was not too far from Greece at this point.
The driver was not impressed, and we finally got back on the road minus rakija and onwards through Turkey. The quality of the roads was immediately better, and since the border, there were huge Turkish flags everywhere.
As we entered Istanbul, it was dark. The bus was driving very slowly as it navigated the chaos that is Istanbul. When we reached the bus terminal, we followed a spaghetti of roads that twisted around each other to park at the station. Upon exiting, the first thing I noticed was a bus for Iraq; this was very exciting as I was thinking, "Now I am in the Middle East." Finding a taxi was not a problem as there were plenty. Bam! Now I suddenly had to remember my Turkish. The traffic was really bad, and the driver kept changing routes to try to save time. It was fantastic; here I was in Istanbul. I could see mosques scattered across the hills, and bright yellow taxi cabs were weaving in and out of traffic lanes, beeping at each other. I decided that this is the New York of the Middle East.
We were getting closer to the hotel as the driver navigated narrow bends and streets that seemed to be at an angle of 45 degrees. Suddenly, he stopped the taxi, telling me to get out and walk the rest of the way. I paid and, again trying to coax my wonky suitcase to move, the streets were crowded and very steep, and the 100 meters was difficult!
I was hot and sweaty by the time I reached the hotel. I was reunited with Stanislav, who had flown in the same day.
After a quick shower, we went to a nearby hotel where I had a falafel starter and veggie köfte, and Stanislav had fruit, yogurt, and oatmeal. I had an excellent red wine to wash it down. Before retiring to bed, I had one raki.
In a word #Istanbul
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