Spring Break - Day 1

On Friday morning I caught a cab to the airport with Drew, Phil, and Sheehan. Because it was so early and we took a metered cab, it only cost 35 pounds, which is a great deal! I was really happy that the cab ride went smoothly because I heard a story about a group of study abroad students who tried taking a taxi to the airport and missed their flight because the taxi driver didn't know how to get to the airport. Never trust a taxi driver in Egypt when he tells you that he knows how to get somewhere. The same goes for asking random people for directions--they'll completely make up directions rather than tell you that they don't know. It's a cultural difference.

Anyway, I had read that Egypt Air was mediocre at best, a nightmare at worst; however, I was pleasantly surprised. It was clearly a new plane, and the service was wonderful. We even got breakfast on the 2-hour flight from Cairo to Istanbul. Also, seeing the snow-capped mountains in Turkey through the window was amazing!

Getting from Ataturk Airport to Sirkeci Station was a breeze, and fortunately it had lockers so that we could store our luggage for the day. Like Cairo, there are juice bars, lots of stray cats, people delivering tea, and large legs of meat on rotisseries in Istanbul. However, the cats are well-fed, the tea comes in different kinds of glasses, and the meat is used to make doner instead of shawerma. I also noticed that there were fewer pharmacies in Istanbul and the waiters outside restaurants were much pushier than the ones in Cairo. From the afternoon until the evening, I walked through the Grand Bazaar twice, along the coast of the Sea of Marmara, and past the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Tokapi Palace.

That night I took a train, the Bosphorus Express, to Bucharest, Romania. I shared a 2nd class double sleeping compartment with Drew. It was in pretty poor condition. The bathrooms at the end of the car were disgusting, and the water was eventually cut off. I found a toenail in my bunk's sheets--enough said. As a side note, I vividly remember being unable to get out of the compartment, so I started banging on the door and shouting, "We can't open the door!" It turns out that we just had to turn the lock in the other direction. Anyway, the ride lasted almost 24 hours due to delays. On the bright side, the conductor was very kind and helpful, and he spoke English. The views of the Bulgarian countryside were breath-taking, and I felt somewhat guilty for not stopping there.