My dad and I set off to Turkey on a bus at 10:30 pm. The bus surprisingly was very clean and comfortable and they gave us free snacks. The journey is around 6 to 7 hours,
(Bulgaria - Turkey). Most of the time I was looking out of the bus window thinking how nice it was going to be there. The bus stopped 3 or 4 times so that everybody could buy water or food, or go to the toilet.
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The bus we were on |
We got there around 5:30 in the morning I wasn't tired at all. Dad on the other hand was extremely tired. We headed straight to a cafe and ordered a doner and a Turkish tea. I had never had such a delicious doner, it was incredibly tasty. The chicken was spicy, the bread was super thin and the lettuce was fresh. The tea was also delicious. It is served in a special glass made especially for Turkish tea. After we had eaten we walked over the Galata bridge which was fun considering there were lots of fishermen and jelly fish to watch whilst crossing. It took as around half an hour to cross it as I would stop at every bucket of fish that the fisherman had caught - it was worth it!
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Me and the fishermen
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Later that day we went to find a hotel on the Asian side and we had to cross the Bosphorus straight. This was my first time officially in Asia! We soon became very hungry again, but there was hardly any street food, which was mainly what I went for! ;) Dad explained to me that it was only 06:00 and that the stalls wouldn't open until 10:00. So in the end we settled for a cafe that we found, and ate a horrible pastry, but served with a good Turkish tea. We left the cafe and started to look for the hotel after a very long two hour walk we finely found it. The room was amazing, the beds were comfortable and clean, and the people were very friendly. Dad laid down on the bed and fell asleep straight away. I decided to play the computer as I was not tired. Dad was asleep for about two hours, when I finally woke him up with thoughts of food!
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Picture of the Bosphorus river, from the boat we got |
The first street food I bought was a Balik Ekmek, which is a fish sandwich stuffed with salad. It was good, then we had another Turkish tea which was three times better then the others we had before. They served them with baked chick peas and surprisingly they went really well together. Whilst we were walking around I saw a sign saying ISLAK HAMBURGER. they looked divine, so we tried them.. Here is some advice - if you are travelling to Istanbul, Turkey, get an Islak hamburger, THEY WERE AMAZING!! It was my FAVOURITE TURKISH FOOD, also one of my favourite foods in the world. We each ate seven. We tried lots of street food and liked most of them there were a few disappointments.
The next morning, we planned a trip to an aquarium called Sea life which is the biggest aquarium in Europe. They had some amazing fish and some huge sting rays and sharks. I recorded loads of footage which will be uploaded onto the blog soon.