I was on the fast train this morning. The max speed I saw was 255km so I suppose it is really a fast-ish train. Was still a pretty good ride. The problem was we arrived in Pendik station. I have directions from two other stations but not this one. I have no clue where I am so I am following the crowd and I spied an "information" window. I asked the best way to get to Taksim. The woman said to go out and catch a bus. I went out but there was no one organizing the busses. Again I had no idea where I should be so I asked a kid who I thought might speak English.
As it turned out the kid didn't speak English but there were some young girls there who did a little so they tried to work it out. Before long there was about 10 people trying to help me. Eventually they worked out I had to catch no251 bus. It came along and a muslin woman said to get on she would show me. I jumped on but didn't have a ticket only cash, and you cant pay the driver. A young guy got on and a woman told him to scan his card twice so he did then asked her why? She explained I didn't have a ticket so I gave him 5 lira and he was happy.
One hour on the bus and I was getting worried. I thought I should have crossed the Bosphorus bridge and I was looking for signs to try to pick up which suburb I was in. I asked a couple next to me if we were still going towards Taksim and they didn't speak English. The old bloke got up and got his son from the back of the bus and he came to see what was wrong. His English wasn't great but it was OK and he said he would show me where to go. Soon after that we crossed the bridge3 and I felt a lot more confident.
Shortly after that the family got up and he said to get off here. I thought I had to get the Metro from here and he showed me where it was. He walked me all the way down to the station and showed me how to buy a ticket them explained which platform and which station to get off. I thanked him heaps and went off.
Now having done it I think the initial info from the stupid woman at the "Information" gave me the wrong info. I think I should have gone the other way and got a ferry. I could have got a ferry from Kadikoy to Karakoy then the metro straight to Taksim. It would have taken heaps less time, instead of 2hr on the bus, 20min on the metro and 1hr walk. It took 4 1/2hr from Ankara to Istanbul and 4 hr across town.


I went out tonight just for a short walk to the square and got a few photo's. All those people are still out there, don't they have a home to go to? It is nearly9 at night and the crowd is still as big as it was this afternoon. The guys at reception said it is Saturday so that might explain some of it.
I managed to negotiate Taksim square and followed Istiklal cadesi to the hostel I was looking for. Istiklal cadesi is a shopping mall. There were sooo mannny people you wouldn't believe how many. And trams, and garbos and ********s protesting and riot police fully armed. By the time I found my hostel I had had enough. They wanted too much for a pokey room and there were waayy to many stairs for me so I said no thanks. He said there was another place down the road so I went to look but they didn't have a room. I was about to head to another place I had seen on the net when I though I would check a couple of the dodgy alleys here to see what I could find. The first place looked really nice and looked too expensive for me but it was actually much cheaper that the first one but they didn't have a room. I checked another lane and found a hotel that is pretty good. It is clean and has everything I was looking for so I am booked for the next four days.

I went for a walk today. Intending to walk to Galata Tower, when I got there the line was soo long I gave up and went to the station for the metro. When I got there I decided I was soo close to the Galata bridge that I would keep walking and walked over the bridge. By then I just kept walking and before you know it I was in Sultanamet. It was way too far to walk back so I took the tram. It has been a huge day so I think I might take a boat ride on the Bosphorus tomorrow.