Travel to Istanbul

My adventure for the day included a car, a train, another train, a bus, an airplane, and a van.

A car: Gianluca dropped me off at the train station, for which I was VERY grateful considering how much my suitcase weighed (26 kg... ugh). It was so hard to say goodbye, but I'm glad it was only him and the kids were already at school!

A train: There aren't trains directly to Bergamo, where the airport was, so I had to go first to Treviglio. I was SO worried about making the connection- trains in Italy aren't the most trustworthy timing-wise. I ended up in a backwards seat, which I wasn't terribly pleased about, but I had myself so boxed in with my suitcase and carry-on that it would have been a HUGE production to get everything moved around. Luckily, everything went on time, and I arrived in Treviglio with no issues.

Another train: Then, I just had to drag my bags across about 9 platforms (down stairs and back up) to get the the next train. In a span of about ten minutes. But I made it, and I was off to Bergamo! I was really worried about the stops- on every subway I've been on, there's a screen saying what stop is next, but not on the train- you just have to hope you see the platform name out the window, which didn't always happen. So I was a little worried! But again, I made it to the right place with no problems. The pages in my journal from that part of the trip are filled with the words "STOP WORRYING" every sentence or two. I was pretty nervous.

A bus: As soon as I got off the train in Bergamo, I had to find the bus to the airport. Of course, my italian skills chose that moment to completely fail me, so I could barely get out the sentence asking where to buy a ticket. And I'm pretty sure I used terrible grammar and an American accent. Thank goodness the woman behind the counter spoke English- and that was the right place. After asking her where to catch the bus, I was on my way.

A bus: Well, I was sort of on my way. She told me to catch the bus at McDonalds, but there was CLEARLY a large group of people waiting with suitcases a couple of buildings over. So that's where I headed, and asked there if it was the right place. It was. Soon, someone else came up to me and asked (in Italian) the same question, and where to buy a ticket. I pulled my brain together and was able to answer her, thank goodness. When the bus came we ended up sitting near each other and talked briefly (mostly about how terrible/insane the driver was) in a mixture of Italian and English.

An airplane: I actually ended up getting to the airport about 3 hours before my flight, just because of when the trains were running. Better early than late! Check in was fine, though it took me far too long to figure out why all the check-in and security people automatically spoke English to me (I gave them my US Passport, duh). I was shocked again by the way airport security looks when the US isn't involved in some way. The Bergamo airport wasn't the MOST efficient/nice/clean security I've ever been through (that was definitely Dublin!) but still LOADS better than anything at home. I didn't even realize that I hadn't needed to remove my shoes until I was already through and saw that no one else was hopping around on one foot trying to put them back on. And I didn't have my liquids in a baggie- even though there were only 2 things, that NEVER would have been okay in the US. From security, I grabbed McDonalds before going through passport control to the international gates. I had the strange experience of someone speaking English to me and me not catching it- it was loud and I just wasn't paying attention. But for some reason, "Come, scusa?" came out of my mouth instead of "Sorry, what?" and when they repeated it in Italian, I understood. They probably thought I was a crazy person.

I have to say, budget airlines are AWESOME. There are so many terrible reviews online, about long lines and baggage fees and leg room, and I just read them and think "but... you KNEW you were flying on a budget airline. I feel like this gives you ZERO room to complain." I can completely understand why band people stuck on RyanAir or EasyJet were thrown off- you weren't told what the situation was. But I was determined to go in as a passive observer, and that made everything SO entertaining. Like the fact that as soon as the gate workers came, every single person waiting BOLTED for the line. And they didn't even make a straight line! It was just a giant mob! And their safety video was adorable. It was in Turkish, so I had to read the subtitles, but it was all little kids giving the safety instructions and showing the examples. Adorable. I was kind of sad that I couldn't even get water without having to pay, but whatever, it was only a 2 and a half hour flight. And I had a window seat! But it was really cloudy, so there wasn't much to see. We flew over Italy, a sea, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria before making our way to Istanbul. Yes, I had to look that up later after drawing the map that was on the screen in my journal.

And a van: When we landed, I had to buy a visa to get into the country, and then go through passport control. After I got through there and collected my suitcase, I found the driver who was meant to take me to my host family's house. He had a sign with my name and everything! I felt super special. He didn't speak any English, so we had a pretty quiet hour+ ride across Istanbul. It was dark, but there was still a lot to see! The traffic was CRAZY - apparently lanes are meaningless here - and at the slowest points (it was rush hour, so the traffic was REALLY bad on the Asian side) there were people walking between the lanes selling things. Roses and what I'm guessing was some kind of food. And I think I may have seen someone with water bottles at one point. But they were just walking on the freeway, between the lines of cars!

When I arrived at the house, I got a tour, had some time to chill, and then ate dinner with most of my host family. We spent a long time talking, but I was so tired, I went back to my room to get myself organized pretty soon.

So that was my travel day!

It seems I'm not terribly fantastic at keeping this updated. My bad. My goal right now is to update once a week- probably on Saturday or Sunday. Whether it's an old story from Italy that I never finished editing, a craft project or other activity, or a new story from Istanbul, I hope to keep this more active in the coming weeks and months!