Istanbul

Day 14

We managed to negotiate Budapest's public transport network with reasonable success and not much stress to get to the airport in good time for our flight.

That was when we saw the check in hall. Christ. To get our bags on the plane it was literally a scrum with only natural selection deciding who got there first. I don't know whether it's my Britishness shining through but what's wrong with a queue?

After that charade, we eventually landed Istanbul, on the Asian side of the city.

And so began the next balls up. There was once again a massive scrum to get through passport control, but I'd also noticed a sign saying 'Visa control'. Neither Rach nor I were aware we needed a visa to enter Turkey, a mistake which cost us €25 each. As they didn't accept payment in Turkish Lira, which I only found out after withdrawing 200 Lira.

We finally left the airport and got a bus which dropped us off at one end of Taksim Square. The opposite end to where we were staying unfortunately. This meant we had to transport our bags over to the busiest and most chaotic shopping street I had ever seen, and then somehow find the hostel.

We made it there about an hour later and dripping with sweat.

That evening we took a wander down to the Galata Tower and experienced the amount of stray cats kicking about in the city. Cue Rach completely losing her s*** and stopping to pet every single one of them.

After a few twists and turns off Istaklal, the main shopping street, we found a load of side streets packed with people, stalls and waiters trying to coax us into every bar and restaurant about. The place was like no other I had visited before.

On the way back after a few drinks and aching to try a kebab in the place most famous for them we stumbled upon a place which served a chicken doner sandwich for 2 lira, about 60p. Jackpot.

Day 15

It was really hard to sleep because of how hot and sticky it gets. When I had finally got something like a decent portion of sleep I didn't take kindly to a knock on the door from the hostel owner in the morning.

'Can you please leave your room for like 5 minutes so we can spray some poison. It's totally normal, don't worry.'

Great, so we were staying in a condemned room.

We decided it'd be wise to make tracks and explore the rest of the city. Walking down to the Galata Bridge it's hard not to notice the ridiculously steep hill which is the most tiring thing in the world to walk back up.

Walking over the bridge there is absolutely no cover for shade and while you get a great view of the Golden Horn, it's hard to appreciate it for long without the fear of melting.

As soon as we got over to the Old Town we were struck by the amount of people selling things from fake Lacoste t-shirts, to dodgy cigarettes and corn on the cob. It was literally a free for all.

Walking up the winding streets to the Grand Bazaar you get a sense of the size. A clue, it is absolutely huge.

It was entirely worth the hot and sweaty walk up to the Bazaar so I could see Rach haggle for anything she laid eyes upon, with varying success.

With our various cut price treasures in tow, we set off back toward Istaklal via a bar on the Galata Bridge for a sunset drink. We decided, after walking out of one place, to eat at one of the restaurants off Istaklal in a bustling side street. We were told that we should get a few things from the menu to share, so we did, in style. I am definitely becoming a fan of meze for the amount of food on offer. We had a variety of things from stuffed vine leaves, to sea bream and a mixed meat plate. We ate everything.

Day 16

Today was definitely a day of two halves. We thought it best to try and book our coach out of Istanbul which involved a long journey to the bus station.

When we got there, it transpired we were in Istanbul's version of Crystal Peaks. To put it bluntly it was an absolute s***hole. To add to our woes, no one had a clue what we were talking about when we mentioned a rail replacement bus service. Eventually we were told to go to an independent bus company, who we explained everything to and Rach was handed a phone to talk to a manager seemingly. While I don't know what was said, from what Rach told me, it just involved the manager shouting at her saying we couldn't get a discount with our inter rail pass and we had to pay full price which was £60 to get to Athens.

Considering our options we tried io work out an alternative route which we could use our passes on but to keep it in mind.

To take our minds of the situation we caught the tram back down to Sultanahmet, the square with both the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, both of which are absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, after taking a few pictures of the outside of the Blue Mosque we weren't allowed in because it was coming up to prayer time. Instead we walked over to the Hagia Sophia, once the biggest Cathedral in the world. Now a museum, we paid to get in and while the interior was stunning, it was a little disappointing that half of it was covered in scaffolding and we hadn't been told.

Later on in the evening we bought tickets to a boat tour of the Bosphorous which, while it was a bit cheap was still interesting and good fun.

Day 17

I'd taken ages trying to plan a route to Athens, and finally after visiting the train station we had it explained to us. We had to go via Sofia, excellent.

It wasn't that simple though, oh no. We had to get a bus to a border post, get picked up by another bus and then get taken to a train station before finally, in theory ending up in Sofia so we could catch a connecting train to Thessaloniki and then another to Athens. Pause for breath.

Seeing as the bus didn't leave until 10pm, we went back up to the Blue Mosque to explore a bit more.

Now, if anyone ever tells you to get a bus out of Istanbul or even just Turkey for that matter, don't.

We got on the bus at 10, got to the border post at Kopikule at 1am and didn't get into Bulgaria until nearly 6am after, literally, the dodgiest as border control post I have ever seen in my life. It really is no wonder that Turkey can't join the EU. At the first post the policeman collected every passport for everyone on the bus and handed them all back to the guy organising all these nefarious dealings sitting at the front of our coach who looked a little bit like the Bulgarian Brendan off Coach Trip. Our Brendan then simply handed half the passports to a German guy travelling on the coach and half to me to distribute back to each other, thankfully mine and Rach's were in the pile I was handed.

We then had to tangle with Bulgarian passport control which took ages, and 3 people got detained and sent back into Turkey.

It all felt a bit Midnight Express.