theatre of the absurd: Istanbul, part XI - More Sea of Marmara, and back to Bulgaria

This is probably my favourite photo from this leg of the trip, and my favourite part of Istanbul: the heavenly ice creams

I managed to make it in time for my bus, although I did get slightly lost when transferring from the tram to the metro. Istanbul transport is pretty overwhelming, and can be something of an assault on the senses, even for a seasoned traveller such as myself.

I was pleased to be leaving Istanbul, it just wasn't really my cup of tea and I was tired of people following me around, trying to draw me into conversation, not taking no for an answer, and the masses of people everywhere.

The night bus from Istanbul back to Sofia was supposed to take about 8 hours. I'd originally planned to take the morning bus back, but after being well and truly put off by the hostel in Sofia that I'd stayed in, and being unable to find any other accommodation at such short notice, I'd decided to cancel my original booking and simply catch the night bus instead. You know a hostel is bad when a night bus is the preferable option. I met a Kurdish-Turkish girl (who was a German citizen) on the bus there, who was very nice, and she told me about her family, her Kurdish roots, her Turkish family whom she'd been visiting in Istanbul, and a little bit about what it had been like for her growing up in Germany. In light of the recent Mesut Özil incident, it's even more interesting to reflect upon what she said.

Anyway, the ride was pretty uneventful. Once again we were held up at the border point, and the German girl told me stories about how she had witnessed entire families having to unpack all of their belongings, that sort of thing. We stopped at a highway station, where I used up the last of my liras. Then it was back to the bus and on to Bulgaria, where I spent most of my time sleeping. Most of the passengers got off at various stops in Bulgaria, and by the time we had let off another load of people at Plovdiv and were on our way to Sofia, there were only about 4 people left on the bus, including me and the other girl.

Turkish trams

One last ice cream

And one last dinner in Istanbul

It was about 5am when we reached Sofia and it was still dark, but with a glimmer of the rising sun in the skies. I was exhausted, and dragged myself to the bus station to wait for the metro station to open and for full daylight - the bus station, at least, was fairly light and safe, and there was free WiFi access. My flight from Sofia back to Budapest was at 1300, and the prospect of having to wait around for so long was annoying - it was only about an hour from the city centre to the airport, but there was nothing I could do about it. At about 6 o'clock I left the bus station in relief, and went off to take the metro. The ride to the airport was uneventful. I used up the rest of my remaining lev getting some small snacks at the airport, then sat around waiting for my plane, heartily sick of easternmost Europe and utterly relieved to be going back to Budapest, despite the still-recent memories I had left there; but I've said it before and I'll say it again, it was my Budapest and still is, and nothing can ever change that.