July 8, 2000: Istanbul crossing rumania and bulgaria on our trip from budapest was quite hard (customs are anoying in the middle of the night...). now, we already reached the orient at turkey. istanbul is a very friendly and pulsating city. . we feel very comfortable here though we don't speak any turkish. our first plan was to stay at a downtown youth hostel, but an 82yrs old man offered us a hotel room for 4'500 turkish lira (usd 8). he picked us up with his old american car. this offer was a great opportunity and we're lucky that we've agreed. following our instinct was the right thing - you cannot win when you don't risk anything. the only thing that bothers us at the room are those millions of mosquitos buzzing 'round our heads all night long! we were on the hunt at 5 am... right now we're downtown. its about 34 degrees (celsius), but you get used to that. we've already taken a turkish bath which we really enjoyed after two not too comfortable nights at the train. after bathing, we felt quite cleaner... monday we probably catch a bus and heading more south.

back no work for the police, at least they could take a picture with some tourist!