Melissa in Constantinople, part five – the journey home

As I mentioned before, I like long, slow journeys. I prefer not to fly if there’s an alternative. This has nothing to do with phobias, but rather with my upbringing. When I was little my dad always insisted we go everywhere by car, even if the journey took several days, because he wanted me to understand how far apart things really were, how large our country really was, and how the journey to somewhere could be just as rewarding as the destination. Those lessons stuck with me; to this day my favourite part of traveling is not being somewhere else but getting there. Emirhan, on the other hand, likes to fly, so we compromised: we flew up to Istanbul, but we took the bus back. Turkey doesn’t have much in the way of passenger-quality railways (and no railways at all down here on the Mediterranean coast); luxury bus companies are very competitive here and nothing at all like the grubby bus lines they have in other countries. The vehicles are new and comfortable, there’s an attendant who brings food and drink, and the bus stops at interesting places along the way. I love Turkish buses, even if it does take twelve hours to get home from Istanbul. It reminds you that it really is that far away.

Our trip was an overnight one, so I didn’t get many photos of the first half (everything was dark). We stopped at about 5:00 in the morning for breakfast. Soup is a popular breakfast food in Turkey; my favourite is lentil with lots of lemon and crushed red pepper.

The rest stop had a sucukerie— miles and miles…

…and miles of garlic sausage.

By the time we finished breakfast it was light outside. The Turkish countryside is gorgeous.

Check out the mosque in the distance.

Sometimes I think Turkey is the most beautiful place in the world. You’d never be able to tell from an airplane.

And then we got stopped by the jandarma.

Everyone had to hand over their identity cards. Most people left the bus to smoke. Emirhan took pictures.

We were home a couple of hours later, exhausted. Thus ends the saga of our little trip to Istanbul. I hope you enjoyed tagging along as much as I enjoyed sharing… I’ll have something new to talk about tomorrow.