Istanbul to Thessalonica

It's 8AM, and I'm sitting in the Orient Express Restaurant in Serkeci Train Station, Istanbul. It seems they're slowly starving the train system in Turkey. "Left baggage" closed four years ago. There is only one train a day to Greece--more politics. The train seems to be generally useless here, but the bus is easy to catch, cheap, and faster than the train. I didn't really try the Ankara trip though. It might have been OK. My only real train experience once I got to Turkey was trying to get info at Haydarpasa where a fight broke out between an old man and a teenage boy. Maybe that affected my judgement.

On another note, I don't really like the climate of the Aegean Coast (Efesus, Selcuk, etc.) which is humid and hotter than I like it. Maybe I just got lucky, but Istanbul was wonderful for weather: cool in mornings and evenings, probably because it's right on the water.

Iznik was a nice little farming town on a large, pretty lake where they make beautiful tiles. The people at that hotel were kind and breakfast was good as it was at Hotel Nilya in Selcuk the next day. I had two of the best cups of Turkish coffee at these two places. The one I'm having now is not bad though a little pricey.

Maybe someday they'll start the Orient Express (Paris-Istanbul) back up again. I think it would be a good idea. Maybe in a couple of years, say 2010, Turkey will be part of the EU and it will make sense to start it back up. The Efesus ruins were nice to see, even though tourist season is starting now. Fortunately, I caught it before ANZAC Day so I still got a hotel.

Last night on my bus trip back to Istanbul from Izmir (3PM - 00:30) I got worried by all the over-helpful young guys going to Istanbul. They were concerned for me because we would be arriving so late. I ended up using the Kamil Koc courtesy service they suggested to get me to a cab and then to the Hotel Sultan's Inn which I had avoided the first time around in Istanbul. It turned out to be OK, but I could've used a newer book with an updated train, bus ferry schedule for 2007.

After two cups of overpriced Turkish coffee at the Orient Express Restaurant in Serkeci station, I went through the border crossing routine at Uzunkopru. It didn't seem like anyone wanted us to leave Turkey. They definitely took their time and even escorted a couple of Chinese tourists off the train. We all made the crossing OK, and we got off to switch trains in a small Greek town nearby. At that point, they escorted the Chinese guy and girl off the train again.

While waiting, I met the other people leaving Istanbul by train that day--two Americans on a trip to Turkey and Greece. The US couple are from Minnesota and Kansas and we talked about Istanbul and Greece mostly. They told me about the people--possibly missionaries--who were tortured and killed in eastern Turkey only a day or two before. I was surprised and disappointed.

The people running the station put the Chinese tourists back on a train and I'm not sure whether they had to go back to Istanbul or if they made it to Alexandropoulis--their intended destination. Maybe they were coming overland from China-India-East Turkey-Europe. I never found out. The border guard was a little bit of an authoritarian, and my book said the border crossing here could be problematic. I just stared at him, and when he kept staring back I said "merhabah". He seemed to like that so I didn't get harassed or sent back to Istanbul.