KIEV TO ISTANBUL OR PLANES, TRAINS BOATS AND TAXI
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2008
1
185
319
Trip End
Sep 02, 2009
Istanbul,
Turkey
Friday, April 17, 2009
I checked out duty free and found the 1 litre Bailey's Irish Cream is on for 9 Euros or about $12. I just can't pass this bargain us and get one and stick it in my carry on. Amazing the weight one can carry when it is something you realy like or want.
There are not too many on the flight, we go down to a bus that takes us out to the plane. We are soon off and our way back to Istanbul. We get the same for breakfast as what we had on the going plane for lunch, pre packaged croissant with nutella inside, a chocolate covered wafer bar and those ham flavoured chips. I tried to trade the ham chips for a wafer bar, but she refused, lots of nit, nits.
I forgot to mention when we landed in Kiev people were jumping up and getting their coats out as soon as the wheels touched the tarmac, leaving the overhead doors open. You could hear the seat belts click undone and we weren't anywhere near the terminal building, people getting coats and bags down. Landing, this time, in Istanbul most stayed seated and the stewardess was watching and yelling at those attempting to stand up.
We tried to find a mini van to Sultanamhet but no luck, we checked out the taxi and then went to the tramway. It was easy getting on at the starter station with lots of places for our packs. We changed lines halfway into the city and had to leave the bags at the entrance and find a seat close by. The tram was getting full and lots getting on and off. Got off at the Blue Mosque and made our way down to the YAKAMOZ GUESTHOUSE.
We had a slight hick-up and had documents sent to us at YAKAMOZ GUESTHOUSE. Mahmud and Abdurrahman were so helpful in agreeing to accepting our FedEx envelope in their name, letting us know when it arrived and putting it safely away until we arrived back at their guest house. Thank you ever so much, your kindness and offer to help us is greatly appreciated. Everything worked our just perfect. They also let us connect to the internet, leave our bags with them while we arranged for our train tickets and enjoyed another afternoon in Istanbul.
We made our way to the train station and got the tickets for tonight's train to Thessaloniki, Greece. It leaves at 9 p.m. and we can board around 8:30 p.m.
We decide to take a ferry over to Asia, we missed doing this and since we are at the ferries we find the boat and enjoy the ride across the Bosporus. There is suppose to be a bazaar somewhere around her, we couldn't find it so we head back to the mainland.
We stop by a corner restaurant and watch the woman making fancy waffles, slathered with toppings like chocolate, hazelnut sauce, pistachio sauce, strawberry sauce, etc., then puts fresh fruit on top of the sauces. We decide to have one and it was delicious.
Back to the YAKAMOZ GUESTHOUSE to pick up our bags and thank Mahmud and Abdurrahman for all their help. We brought them some painted wooden eggs from the Ukraine, I think they like them.
We had our dinner and picked up a few things for the 13 hour ride. We do have a compartment with beds above and a seat below. Really small and only Len could go in and take the bags and put them up on the rack, yes, that small. We were sitting waiting for 9 to come, but I was so very tired I got into bed. It was a rocking ride but I did manager to sleep. About midnight a knock came to the door and it is the passport check, so we get the passports out and give them to the man when he next comes by and wait until he brings them back. Back in bed and then there is another knock, luggage check. We get up and Len gets down his bag, the man looks at it and says clothes, we say yes, he asks if we have anything to declare and we say no. No idea what we should be declaring either. Finally back to bed and the train moves on.
Then at 1 o'clock there is a passport check! Oh, yes, that first one would have been for leaving Turkey and this one for entering Greece. We hauled out the passports and gave them to the man and waited, he finally brought them back and we got back in bed for the night.
