Friday, September 28, 2007

By foot, by bus or by boat!

For those of you who have lived in Turkey or have visited Turkey you will appreciate this story. On Wednesday I needed to go to the European side to have some blood work done. I had to eat breakfast and then be at the clinic exactly two hours after I had eaten not a minute later. No problem right? Except that morning bridge traffic is terrible! I decided to take public instead of driving. Ok I ate at 8:15 then at 8:30 I headed out the door. I walked to the street and caught a mini bus to the boat I was going to take at 9:15. But traffic was horrible and I missed the boat by like 2 minutes! So then I got in a taxi and headed to another boat in another part of town. Thankfully these boats leave when they get full and not a certain time. So I get to the other side and by now it is 9:45 and I have 30 minutes to get there. I hop in a taxi and make it there by 10:00! It took me 1hr. 45min. to get there then I waited for about 10 min and then they took my blood, which took all of 30 seconds and then it was time to start the journey back! This time though I took one bus to a particular stop that went across the bridge and then that next bus would take me all the way home. Sounds easy, right? But as I was walking to the stop the bus I needed to be on passed me! And these days I don't run to catch anything! So I had to wait about 15 minutes for the next bus. Then I was on my way! And I finally returned home about 12:00. Needless to say I took a nap in the afternoon cause I was tired from all the traveling! And for those of you who don't know this is pretty typical travel day for most who live here. So I won't get any sympathy from those living in the city. That's ok I wouldn't give it to them either!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

You'll get sympathy from me. Blech.

Rebecca said...

gecmis olsun my friend! I give you lots and lots of sympathy! I guess I shouldn't complain about my 45 minute commute in the morning. :)

Anonymous said...

sympathies to you. i'm just hoping that none of that including walking up hill, or walking up 94 steps to get to where you were going.

rindy said...

oh come on, suck it up! what's a little 4 hour walk around town?? :-) Really, though, yuck! You definitely have my sympathies and prayers!

Deanna said...

Istanbul, don't you love it! I am glad you got there, I would hate for you to have to do that twice! - D

Unknown said...

I'd have been ooflemeking and pooflemeking the whole time...and I'm not walking for two. ;-) Glad you made it to your appointment though. How sad would it have been to have missed it?! I'd have eaten a borek and camped out in their office for two hours. :)
Miss you friend! :) amy i

Gina said...

Yes, I found it amazing on how long it did take to get from one point to another, and also just how far one bus would actually go!!! We are definitely spoiled here in the States!!