Istanbul and our 3-month trip!

Monday 31.7. (22km)

After many cyclists advised us not to ride directly to Istanbul (too many people, too much traffic), we decided to take the bus.

We pay 35 TL per person (about 9 euros) including bicycles and even get a Çai and cookies.

This is served to us by a steward in a white shirt and bow tie :)

After arriving on the Asian side, we set out to find our place to stay.

We pass a huge park right by the water. There are many seating and barbecue options for people.

We wander around a bit until suddenly a scooter driver honks and waves us over.

We think it's Ali and follow him.

Suddenly, he says something like 'be careful' and drives into a tunnel on the wrong side!

We're in a curve, hear that cars are coming, and push ourselves to the side so no car hits us.

The scooter driver honks and leads us out of the tunnel.

Suddenly, he's gone...

Hm, maybe not Ali after all?

But then how did he know where we wanted to go?

Well, we're definitely on the right street and find the house - unfortunately without a name on the doorbell - so we go searching again - this time for a cafe with internet.

In the end, everything is fine, we find Ali and go together to a Turkish restaurant..

Tuesday 1.8.

Exactly 3 months ago today, we started

How time flies!

Wednesday 2.8.

In the evening, we have a 'typical' Turkish ouzo / raki evening with 'Meze'

These are various delicious appetizers like yogurt with eggplant, dried tomatoes, olives, cheese pastes, anchovies,...

A fun night :)

Thursday 3.8.

Off to the 'old city'

We visit the spice market, the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque and wander around.

A carpet seller approaches us and when he finds out we're from Germany, he invites us for tea as he grew up in Munich.

We have a good conversation, he tells us that he has already been on TV (RTL II the Trödeltrupp with Sükrü) and then he tells us the story of Persian carpets.

Suddenly, we are in the midst of a sales conversation and we look at each other and think, 'how did we end up here?!'

Of course, we don't buy anything :)

Thursday 4.8.

Today is my dad's birthday!

Happy birthday!!

We go in search of cardboard for the flight and find some.

Unfortunately, we later realize that they are a bit too small - so we have to go out again tomorrow.

But for now, we're going to the Triggerfinger concert - yay, I'm excited!