Getting lost, finding back and plastic birds

(this text is a translation of the German entry)

I arrive at the Otogar, Turkey’s biggest bus station. It is my first visit to Istanbul. I have never seen anything like that and think to myself: „This must be the biggest bus station in the whole world!“ It stretches over several floors, every floor is home to many little shops, where you can by pretty much anything you need. For example, you can get shoes (because that’s what you buy when you change buses, right?). Or medicine in one of the many pharmacies. Or food in supermarkets or restaurants. Or you can buy tools or whatever you need to build your house. Or you can buy car parts. This I do understand looking at all the buses. Every floor is like a city in itself. The basement, several floors in the middle, the upper floor. Many little cities on top of one another. The only thing that makes them different is the degree of light that reaches down to them.

The Otogar bus station in Istanbul. Photo: wikipedia.org

Let’s go and find Kadiköy

My bus struggles through the narrow and winding roads to reach the top floor which greets us with warm sunshine. I get in a small shuttle bus, it brings me to the ferry in the middle of the city, to the ferry terminal which will bring me to the Asian side of the city, to Kadiköy. It is supposed to be more quiet, a little more relaxed, a little more gemütlich, as we Germans like to say. Continue reading →