Burgas to Istanbul

30 September
Burgas to Istanbul by bus.

Burgas looks like a really nice city.  It's about the 3rd largest city in Bulgaria, but the nicest one we've seen.  It almost has a bohemian atmosphere, and the hotel we're staying at is a delightful small one with lovely people running it.  Some nice posters around the place.

Last night on our city stroll we came across the opening of the World Junior Wushu Championships opening ceremony.  Couldn't find any Australians though.

We had tickets for the 1pm bus to Istanbul so spent the morning looking around and relaxing.

When the bus turned up though, no room for our bikes!! so couldn't get on.  Looked like we were going to have to wait around til midnight for the next bus, when somehow they remembered that there was another bus coming through from a different location at 2pm.  Only just managed to get our bikes on that one!

The border crossing went smoothly again.  Although they did take all the luggage out of the buses and get dogs to check it.

Looks like the refugee crisis may be increasing border protection

The bus trip took forever!!  Eventually got in at 9pm after travelling through the suburbs of Istanbul for several hours.  It's a city of 17 million!  Traffic and freeways everywhere.

Next was our adventure getting to Kaylee's.  Fortunately she'd sent us really good directions.  First the underground, then a train ride.  We kept on meeting the most amazing friendly, helpful Turkish people.  Then we had a 3km ride to her place.  The road we had at the beginning was scarily busy and it was dark, so we walked the first couple of kms, then turned off down the hill towards the Bosphoros and her place.  Wonderful to catch up with Kaylee.

Bit of a struggle getting our bikes up 3 flights of a spiral staircase!