Daily

By Alex

Day 77: Onwards to Europe

Alternative title: How to drink heavily and fail at hitch-hiking. Apparently, the train tracks from Istanbul to the Bulgarian border are broken, so everyone was corralled into a bus and shuttled the four hour journey. Arriving at a… ‘quiet’ border town around 2am, we were helpfully informed by the station staff that the train wouldn’t…

View More
By Alex

Day 70: Welcome to Istanbul

The ferry trundled through the water towards Istanbul. The city slowly rose up from the horizon, a disorganized collection of three, four, five-storey flats, minarets, occasional greenery, and a myriad of other towers. By the time we were thirty minutes out, it fully occupied one half of the horizon. Eighteen million people, all living in…

View More
By Alex

Day 64: Ephesus, Izmir, and Bursa

Kabak – and Turkey in general – seems to consume time terrifyingly quickly. I had no set departure date from Kabak, but when the friends I had made said they were leaving after three nights I decided to follow. If I had stayed at Kabak much longer, I think my time there would have morphed…

View More
By Alex

Day 56: Death and Balloons in rural Turkey

From the ridge at the top of the mountain, the craggy landscaped stretched out below us. Cracked granite boulders were scattered around, protruding from the softer earth. A snaking switchback gravel road receded into the valley and the village below. Two hawks hovered motionless, as if levitating, scanning the ground for anything edible. The odd…

View More