Monday, November 3, 2014

Teemu still can't read the clock. (Istanbul to Konya, Turkey)

Everybody in my hostel in Istanbul asked me “Why Konya?” The honest answer is that the high speed train didn’t go any further.
I guess it’s not the most touristic place since there are no hostels in Konya or they do not keep them open off season. Due to lack of hostels I searched for a cheap hotel and I happened to find one for 18€. So after 4,5 months of traveling I was gonna have my private room for the first time since I left Finland If I don’t count my friends places earlier on my trip.
I checked out from my hostel in Istanbul early enough to have plenty of time to get to the train station because it was 26 kilometres from the city. After half an hour in Metro I submerged to the surface and even managed to find a correct bus stop luckily since there are no signs telling which busses stop in in that particular stop. It took maybe 20 minutes before my bus came but I wasn't worried since I had plenty of time.  The next challenge was to know when to get out of the bus and since there was no english speaking persons aboard I just had to rely on my eyes and instinct. The bus was a double decker and I was standing in the staircase with my backpack because the bus was quite full but I had my eye on this one seat which would be perfect for me and my backpack. After some time whit no sign of a train station so far the the business guy whom I also asked about the train station with no english or german language left the seat I had my eye on an started to haul my backpack towards that seat and as soon as I was ready to sit I saw the sign of a train outside. With Bruce Lee kind of moves and agility I managed to get out of the bus before it closed the doors. It was  moving already though.
I quickly found out that my happiness was  premature. At the age of 37 I still can’t read the clock. I ended up being 15 minutes late instead of having 45 minutes to buy the ticket and so on. I don’t know what the hell happened but I left my hostel 1 hour too later than I was to. Muahhahaaa. Well there’s always the next train. In this case three hours later. 
High Speed Train! Jiiihaaaa. Do you feel the speed, do ya?!

Like almost every time when I arrive into a new city I had no clue whatsoever where I was. It was time to search some wifi. Saw a nice looking coffee shop with a even nicer looking waitress and decided to try my luck. She didn’t speak a word of english so my tries to ask for Wi-Fi were a bit comical. Finally she understood the word internet but the next difficulty was of course the password. At this point I decided to order some çay (turkish tee), sit down and undress my backpack. After a few tries from the girl to type the password she decided to call the manager who appeared ten minutes later to type the password for me. Once again international language of hand sings and gestures proved their power!

Didn’t see a single tourist in Konya besides me and spend the night in a smelly hotel room but had a good night sleep nevertheless in a comfy bed.
It's my hotel room!  
This is the only picture you're gonna see from Konya.

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