Istanbul

It was very hot in the train when I left Bucharest for Turkey at three in the afternoon. I couldn't stay in my compartment for a long time and so stood by the window on the aile, wearing a wet towel around my neck. The conductor gave me a botle of water and a "cucumber" to make me relax. When we stopped at Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, two young British in my compartment left the train. I was heard of the atractive small town, but I was more intrigued by Istanbul. There was another passenger in my compartment and his name was John who came from U.S. He was 22 years old, much youner than he looked. In crossing the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, all the passenger had to get off the train to have a visa stamp, although I was told I didn't need a visa, because I was Japanese. So I was a little bit confused. Strangely, that was the first time to get off the train to get a visa at the border during my long train journey in Europe.

Sultan Ahmet Camii

Turkey is in Near East, or West Asia. It was sure that the atomosphere was different from that of European countries. Istanbul is located at between Aegean Sea and Black Sea. It was a beautiful city and worth visiting. I had no plan to stop by there at first, but my boring journey in Eastern Europe, particularly in Serbia and Romania, changed my mind. That was why I didn't have a guidebook again. Fortunately, there was a tourist information near the entrance of the Istanbul train station, although the staff was unfriendly. Anyway, I got a city map and started sightseeing.

Aya Sofya

The first destination was ... not decided, because when I asked the TI staff member working alone in the small office about the popular attracions in the ciity, she told me everything shown on the map with pictures were attractive. But, in fact, there were more than ten pictures. So I looked for a crowd of tourists and followed them. As a result, I visited three popular plces, Topkapi Palace, Sultan Ahmet Camii, and Aya Sofya, but missed Yerebatan Sarayi, which Mr.Takeuchi, a Turkish lerner from Japan, mentioned later. All the museum and mosques were elegant with Islamic taste and I felt nostalgic for old backpacking in Southeast Asia. There were a lot of retired Japanese tourists indicating how popular the city was. After all the visits, I remembered something very famous in Turkey, Capadokia. I didn't know where it was and how I could get there. So I dropped by a TI near Sultan Ahmet Camii. The staff told me to take a tour and not to go there by myself, because I needed a car to visit a lot of sites scattered around the area and it was better to stay there for a few days. So I headed for a travel agency and talked about it. They gave me a good offer, but unfortunately I was worried about limited days to spend in Europe. That meant I had to take a ferry at Greece to Italy by the end of June and to take a flight at Rome on the fourth of July. I reluctantly decided to decline the offer. I should have well-prepared enough days.

Istanbul Market

There was a market near the train station. It was more similar or close to an Asian market than Eurpopean one. I saw a lot of baked corn venders, although I din't understand why. Out of curiosity, I bought one in front of a mosque and tasted it in the park nearby, but it was not spcially good. There were also some shoeshines near the mosque, placing gorgeous shoeshine foot stools in a rank. From the opposite side of the street, I could cross the river to the east side of Istanbul by the bridge on which a lot of anglers were fishing.

In the evening, before leaving Istanbul, I gave a begger a Turkish coin. I had never done that before, but if I had left Turkey with the coin, it would have been useless and if I had put it in a donation box in the airport, the coin would have gone to someone I had never met. So I thought my behavior might be the best. Anyway I took a train to Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Istanbul Shoeshines

Aya Sofya

Mosaic in Aya Sofya

Topkapi Palace Kitchen

Topkapi Palace Foutain

Topkapi Palace

1-Topkapi Palace

Topkapi and Agean Sea

Aegean Sea

Istanbul

Aya Sofya

Sultan Ahmet Camii

Topkapi Palace

Istanbul First View

Iskender Kebab

Fishing in Aegean Sea