MARMARA

The arrival in Turkey was amazing... In Plovdiv, very near to the Turkish border, dozens of Turkish trucks circulated, and when we went to hitchhike, we were sure that some Turk would stop for us; and it was just like that, with Resat we run for the European end, where the continent keeps being narrowed, arriving to the mega-city of Istanbul. But is something incredible, when a Turkish picks you up by hitchhike, is not only to take you to your destination and that’s all; for them, it implicate much more than that, they give you all they can and have, and they take care of you up to the end; in our case, first he stopped to eat before arrive to Turkey and he invited us to a Döner, (very different to what is sold in Spain, a Döner is a dish of rice with beef). During the way, beer and so on… and after arriving to the border, the truck must to pass a strict control, therefore we had to separate, but we agree to meet again in Turkish lands. Our control neither was short; it took us an hour to arrive to Turkey; to enter, we must to do a visa on arrival that costs 10€ each, and to pass successive controls, including the narcotic one of course…

After stopping in another restaurant, Resat told us that we will arrive late to Istanbul, today, it is the day which the trucks coming from the European side cannot cross the Bosporus Bridge. But it didn’t matter, for a couple of hours we entered into the life of the Turkish truck drivers. At 20 km from Istanbul we found successive gas-stations for trucks, we stopped in one of them where the trucks entered very squeeze and we waited for the next hours among the stares of the truck drivers. Before the opening of the road, the trucks left quick towards the big city, for us it is the first time that we arrive late-night to a city, when it is difficult to move, but like this, the huge Istanbul of 16 million inhabitants impress us much more. Resat took us up to the bus station where the buses departure to Taksim, one of the city centre; and he said goodbye to us giving us 10 Lire to catch the bus, much more than what we needed.
The city, flooded with the towers of the mosques, never dies; it is a constant movement mixing the prayers that comes from the loudspeakers, with the shouts of the sellers in the plenty of markets, the dense traffic with continuous whistles... we also were lucky to see the two different faces of Istanbul: the people eating on the streets markets every time, Kebab, fish... and after the beginning of Ramadan, people keeping the fasting without eating or drinking during the daylight time, of course in a city as Istanbul, not everybody does, but it is difficult to see people eating on the streets.
We were lucky of stay in the heart of Istanbul, at the house of Erenalp of CS, from where we had access to everything. The Galata Tower is close by and crossing the bridge of the same name, we enter in the heart of the matter; the Spices Market, beside all the streets around, ALL is a huge market, which even is joined to the Big Bazaar, a labyrinth of shops where the people fight bargaining to get the best prices. And about prices, Istanbul surprised us, we thought Istanbul will be a very cheap destination, but we were wrong, the standard of living here is very similar to Spain.
The peninsula where the most historical places of the city are found, connects to the traversed Strait of Bosporus, which connects the Marmara Sea with the Black Sea. Here is the Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and Saint Sofia, a basilica that was transform in mosque and now is a museum where mixed Christian and Islamic symbols are seen.

The Galata Tower:

Blue mosque, in and outside:

Saint Sofia:

The fishermen on the Galata Bridge:

It was also very interesting to walk through one of the most fundamentalist neighborhoods of the city, Fatih. Here practically all the women covered their hair, and many of them go totally covered in black.

Istanbul is a very touristic place, this makes to lose the charm sometimes on places as the incredible Blue Mosque; and the sellers of he markets have so much experience that they see you, and they know from where you are, and they know the sentences to attract your attention. Anyway, they never disturb you and in general the people are very nice and always ready to chat for a while.
Other photos of Istanbul; the first is in the night when everybody comes out to the street to eat:

We had heard of the good use of hitchhiking in Turkey, and what a better chance to try it in the middle of Istanbul crossing Bosporus Bridge; the man who picks us up, a Kurdish, left us in a town where the people insisted us to take the bus, because it is very dangerous to hitchhike, but we didn’t think so... To Bursa we arrived with a truck driver who was doing the Ramadan, but it didn’t impede him of stop, and invite us to eat and drink something, despite we didn’t want to respect him. Up to the moment EVERYBODY who pick us up in Turkey, have given us something or we were invited by them.
Bursa was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, in its small historical centre we find several old mosques and something very interesting, the bazaar that was the last stop of the Silk Road, and that nowadays keeps being used.
Funda and her family fest during the Ramadan, as we like to live everything inside of the different cultures, we decided to prove the experience for a day. At 3:30am the children walk through the streets playing drums, and waking the people up, announcing that is the last moment to eat before the sunrise. So, we had a strong breakfast at 4:30am, and we went to sleep again (difficult with the full stomach) with the sound of the prayers announcing that nobody can eat or drink in the next 15 hours…
We thought that it would be very hard, but after sometime, is like the stomach disconnects itself, and we didn’t feel hungry; the worst thing was the lack of water. And like this, 15 hours without put anything in our bodies, we waited anxious the 7:30pm; with the sound of a firework and the prayers, everybody to eat!
Every city has its own calendar with the prayers of Ramadan and the times to stop or to start to eat, which vary every day; in this case the people eat everyday a little bit before, as the sun is hidden sooner.
To go out of here, without hitchhike, a car stopped to help us, and car after car we kept going around the coast of the Marmara up to Çanakkale, the last city of this region, a place full of history, from old civilizations as Troy, up to the remains of battles of the I World War. In Çanakkale there is a replica of the famous Troy Horse, same which was used in the famous last movie.