Here we sit like frogs on a lily pad...

... waiting for the bus to come. The next phase of our tour involved getting from Athens, Greece to Istanbul, Turkey. It doesn't sound that difficult, right? To forestall any Greek transit strikes, our bus was coming for us from Turkey. Word on the street was that the bus ride would be about 14 hours, or 12 hours, or 18 hours... so we tried not to worry about how long we'd be cooped up in the bus. Instead, we got our bags packed and lined up outside our hostel by 7 am. Did I mention that I hauled them down 4 floors? Yeah, well... I did. And if you ever want to see some challenging "spiral" stairs, visit Europe. Anyways, we got our luggage ready for the bus. 

 

And waited...

Looking longingly for the bus...

... which finally came around 11 am. We loaded up pretty quickly, but we didn't head out of Athens until shortly before noon. The drive was pretty nice and actually went rather quickly. I have no clue what I did on the drive... read my book, probably. Oh, and I bought an over-priced can of Pringles at one of our stops and downed almost the entire thing before we stopped for dinner! I was craving salt on that drive for some reason. 

Dinner came after many hours of driving-- it was probably around 8 or later when we stopped-- in a beautiful coastal town whose name I didn't write down.

The sunset was beautiful

This was how I felt about the bus! I probably should have taken a picture to show how happy I was to be standing and walking around... but this one is far more interesting. 

Moussaka for dinner! I preferred this one to the one I had in Athens. It was more flavorful. 

The sweet restaurant where we ate. They had nice bathrooms too. 

Night lights on the harbor

So we loaded back on the bus and drove some more hours to the border. We had to pass through border patrol to leave the country, which we didn't quite realize at first. They collected our passports and checked them, but we didn't have to get off the bus. After they returned our passports, we kept driving. And then stopped at the Turkish border. 

We took our passports and all exited the bus, as requested. We also forked over the money requested: $20 US or 15 Euro. No, they do  not take Turkish Lira. Why? I don't know, but it's an interesting way to handle things. We ended up waiting almost an hour at the border, sometime around 1 in the morning. After we made it past the checkpoint, the bus drove to the  rest area.

This is how we feel about the hassle of getting into Turkey.

This is how we feel about being in Turkey and closer to our destination! Ok, so there's not much change in expression, but we were tired of being awake and tired of driving and tired tired of delays.

Guess where we're at! Yup, we're at the lovely Adela Hotel in Istanbul and it is 6am. 

We are so checking in and going to SLEEP. It was quite the day of bus travel. It was so great to get to my room and sleep... on the pull out couch. You know what? It was clean and softer than the floor. And I could stretch out, unlike on the bus. Blessed day for beds, for an elevator, and for an easy day of the festival so we could get some sleep!