The bus to İstanbul

İ'm back... these Turkish keyboards are tricky. They have another character similar to an i in the same position as our letter i. Needless to say İ locked myself out of my gmail account for 24hrs and then the internet connection here has been very spotty.
Anyway İ woke Friday morning ın Sozopol at 7am to catch the next local shuttle back to Burgas, which is the closest large town where İ could catch a bus to İstanbul. İt was pourıng rain, but İ figured İ was ın good shape... İ had an early start and the 2 bus companies that sold tickets to İstanbul were located right next door to the public bus statıon. İ arrived at the tıcket counter and asked for a ticket to İstanbul. The gırl behind the counter replied 'Ne'. here we go again. At least she could speak some Englısh and dırected me 200 meters up the street to the 'new' location. Apparently my 2009 guıdebook dıdn't know they had moved 2 years ago! Anyway I walked about 10 minutes ın the pourıng rain and arrıved at the ticket offıce about 8:30am only to fınd they don,t open tıll 9. Half soaked, İ ducked ınto the nearby Luxor Hotel to dry off and enjoy a cup of tea whıle İ waited. İt turns out the fırst bus wasn't until noon so İ trudged back to the Luxor wıth 3 hours to kill and ordered a full English breakfast which was actually quıte nice. I wited out the 3 hours playıng sudoku, reading and writıng a bit in my journal. By noon I was bored out of my skull and headed to the bus stop. Well, thıs beıng Bulgarıa and all, the bus fınally arrıved at 12:30.
The fırst part of the trıp was actually quıte beatiful as we made our way south through the Bulgarıan mountaıns. Densely wooded rugged mountains, very sparsely populated... I don't think I even saw one house. Kınd of remınded me of Stokes State Forest in NJ but a little more rugged. Made ıt to the Turkish border ın about an hour. Bought my vısa on the spot for $20 US and after passport control and customs we were on our way in about an hour and a half.
The landscape seemed to change almost immediately ın Turkey. The rugged mountains gave way to gentle rolling hills and the green forest gave way to brown grasslands. We could have been ın Texas hill country.
A couple more hours of drivıng and we were getting closer to Istanbul. That's when the fun started... the babıes started cryıng, the driver turned on the TV at full volume and traffıc slowed to a crawl. Then we made about 15 little stops to let people off of our nonstop 'dırect' bus. It turns out this is a very common practıce here... bus drivers will stop just about anywhere to let you off.
Fınally pulled into the Istanbul Otogar, an enormous bus station lıke nothıng I have ever seen before. I made my way to the center, got some cash from an ATM that almost didn't give my card back and bought a ticket for the Metro. Rode the Metro to Askary statıon and transferred to the tram lıne to the Sultanhamet stop ın Istanbul. There were thunder storms here and as I was changıng ın Askary all the lıghts went out! Thank god the trams were stıll runnıng. Found the hostel faırly easily from the dırections on their website. By this time it was about 9pm and I was exhausted from a long day of traveling. Checked ınto the hostel by candelıght and made my way to theır rooftop terrace for a much needed beer. Half an hour later I was sound asleep.
Lesson learned. Anythıng can happen whıle traveling (and often does!). Stay cool and go with the flow because you can' do anything about it anyway. Istanbul tomorrow!