Trikala to Istanbul (10/22/19 - 10/23/19)
These were some looooong and difficult travel days covering 800km by bus from Trikala, central Greece, to Istanbul, Turkey.
I messed up right away in the morning of the 22nd when I didn’t catch the bus from downtown Trikala to the transfer point where I can get a bus north to Thessaloniki, meaning I had to take an emergency taxi there to the annoyance of the Trikala bus station employees. Oh well, at least I made it in time to catch my 3 hour bus the Thessaloniki, which is where I can buy a bus ticket to Istanbul. My plan was arrive in Thessaloniki and then book an overnight bus from that same station to Istanbul, which the KTEL website says to do (KTEL a major bus line in Greece, kind of like Greyhound in the US.) But that plan was a no go apparently, they list the bus to Istanbul’s details and schedule but it doesn’t actually run according to the person at THE ISTANBUL BUS COUNTER!!!!
Problem solving time: no lodging for the night, no bus to Istanbul where I have an AIrBnB booked, and no train either. My best guess was to walk an hour into central Thessaloniki and check my options at the train station in person. So I hauled everything I own through the boiling heat and was fortunate enough to find a tour company that had an overnight bus leaving that evening with open seats. So I snagged a ticket and had about 6 hours to kill … with zero euros remaining. (Yes I could get more from a ATM but this was the last country I was going to use them so I didn’t really want to.)
I walked to the nearest hostel, only a couple minutes away, and asked if I could bum around in the lobby till my bus arrived. Lucky for me the owner let me stay after I sung an opera of travel woes and my weary soul. So at long last I had a place to sit that was out of the sun, plus a cute kitty!
I boarded my bus at 7pm and it was pretty much what I expected from a budget night bus, which is to say almost completely empty and fairly uncomfortable. I managed to get an hour or two of sleep before we hit the Turkish boarder at 2am and had to offload to go through customs. That was two hours of constantly walking between buildings, giving over our passports, then being told to go to a different building while they held onto our passports until our bus driver retrieved them for us and directed us to a different place to do the whole thing over again like three times. Everything worked out in the end though, and one fitful hour of sleep later we pulled into the the Istanbul bus station at 5am.
No public transport that earl so I had to get a taxi. I got a reasonable offer from a driver until another taxi guy came over as I was putting my stuff in the car and talked to the first guy who promptly took my stuff out and left, forcing me to go with the second guy who charged me significantly more. I was on about 4 hours of sleep so I was very confused and neither of them spoke any English or could direct me to the correct language in google translate so I could talk with them. It was just an all around bad time to be a tourist in Istanbul at 5am.
But I made it to Taksim Square which was near my AirBnB only to get no response from my host (who had been informed of my early arrival time) and had to sit on a cold bench for three and a half hours waiting until I could finally check in. After all that, I finally got to actually sleep in a real bed and passed out until 5pm when I went out for a fancy dinner because I’d earned it! Tomato soup, fresh bread, and a massive kebab - exactly what I needed to lift my spirits after a harrowing 48 hours.
