Istanbul

Ew yucky early morning - we heard rustling down stairs at around 5:30 and didn't think anything of it... we went to leave at 6:30 and the worker man was like don't leave without breakfast, it's ready"
Ahhh shit. We felt so bad but we had to leave. Hope he wasn't too put out.
We drove for 1.5 hours before hitting the traffic.
What caused the traffic? PUTTING ROUND ABOUTS ON A HIGHWAY 😡😡😡😡😡😡

We stopped to refill the car all the way - $30 for a quarter tank 😒😒😒

It took another hour to go maybe 4km but we finally got there. As we are sitting in traffic Will mentions he scratched the hubcap.... don't know why he hadn't previously mentioned it... 🤦🏼‍♀️
didn't matter though because they didn't record it when we dropped the car off woohoo!
Everything went really smoothly from then on.
We got breakfast then checked in, went through all the different customs and found our gate.

The big dilemma of the day was I hadn't bought a Romanian magnet yet. I had to break the bank to get one.... 7€!!!!!! For a little wood thing. Appalled!
I do love it though..

We exchanged our Moldovan money over to Romanian - in Moldovan it was worth $18 - we got given $10...
then my airport salad cost about $8
Seems reasonable...

We boarded with no issues and had no issues on the plane despite it being an unknown airline (Pegasus airlines) - because it wasn't a full flight we got exit row snd the seat between us was free :)

I read on the plane - it only took an hour to arrive.
Can't believe it - Turkish customs were the best ones yet - they didn't need my e-visa because my passport activated it on their systems, they checked my photo and stamped me - no silly game of 20 questions.
Also super excited that their stamp is a red circle - I'm over European black rectangles lol.

Whats more Wills bag was first out and mine not far behind - THEN we walked though the exit and our name was straight in front of us on a sign - easy peasy! Why isn't it always like this😒

The dude led us to where we got a private bus to pick us up. Traffic was dreadful so it took over an hour to reach the hostel. Istanbul by the water looks so gorgeous 😍
Its wayyyyyyy greener than we both thought! They take some serious pride in their gardening! There were heaps of gardens that had been cut into displays. When leaving the airport there was a hedge in the shape of an airplane which was cool.
The grass is immaculate.

Lots of mosques everywhere but they already shit on Moroccos.

Made it to our hostel - front door service - we tipped the driver $5 cause we went to pay him the whole amount and he was honest and tried to communicate he only takes the tip not the money. So for his honesty and because the awkward word tip had been uttered... we tipped lol.

Our dorm is awesome! Really spacious and all beds have a power socket and curtain for a touch of privacy.

We were starving so we went out and got kebabs only they weren't kebabs... they were the kebab ingredients on a plate ... not made up.
It was shit to eat with a knife and fork :/

Turkish exchange is just as hard to do as Romanian. 10 Turkish is $3.50
My brain just rejects the math.
It would be fine if things were 10 or 100 lira but it's always a stupid number like 73 or something.

We walked past the blue mosque but are going to investigate properly tomorrow.

We are both buggered. We went out for dinner and Turkish tea.
Very excited to have Turkish delight in the coming days 🤗

Will wasnt feeling good so he left me at the resturant to pay and ran back to the hostel which was close by.
Inner him back there and he still has a sad tummy :(

In bed. Keen for sleeeeep!!!

Forgot to mention because I suppose it's a given.... the Romanians can't drive. I've uploaded a picture we took on the highway - they do a great job at using their lanes.... bloody hell.

I actually feel very safe in Turkey. I know anything can happen at any time but in saying that, it can happen anywhere.Read more