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Tagged from Gypsyprincess with drivers in Turkey

Travel blogs tagged with drivers in Turkey:

She´s Come Undone

06. Сентябрь [месяц] 2008 | en

The day began with such promise. 10 days after we expected to be heading towards Istanbul and out of Turkey into Greece we were finally underway. Albeit a little painfully. A bump to my knee was proving to be a constant reminder with the 90 degree angle required to sit on the bike. But the important part was that we were driving, and we were Istanbul bound. Not to stop mind you, just to drive out through the highway, as after all, surely that couldn’t be that bad. I was even told it wasn’t that bad, that Sofia was as bad as it got, and Istanbul should be fine.

Insert a long string of curse words.

I am quite confident that I have ruined my karmic balance for the next 6 lifetimes over the curses I slung at the drivers of Istanbul. Slow fiery deaths trapped within the confines of their metallic death mobiles being one of the milder I flung at those who tried to run me over, push me off the road, or cement me in between two cars as one refused to allow me my own space on the road (after all a motorcycle doesn’t need as much space as car so why not fit two or three cars into the one lane with me) and the other decided they did not need to wait and could pass on the hard shoulder.

I HATED driving through Istanbul, and this was just the highway through.

And just when I thought that it could not get any worse my worst nightmare came true. Patrick noticed that we were in the wrong lane and did the run of death to get into the right one, as I sailed passed off the ramp and headed into the actual city, now separated from Patrick by about 600 cars and a new highway.

What did your cool calm and collected heroine do?

She pulled over to the side of the road, stopped her bike, and began to scream at the top of her lungs in between inconsolable sobs of grief. When that made me feel a little better I chanced the screams from inhumane howls to random swear words. When I was able to breath again and fought back the panic and the fear (I was lost in a city of 16 million, unofficial count coming in at 24 million, I had no money as Patrick had it, it would be dark in a little over an hour and driving here was as close to death as I have knowingly come in my life).

Patrick had said however that if we got lost from each other we were to head to the toll booth and he would wait for me there. So gathering my wits about me, I took a deep breath and began the battle to the Edirne exit.

4 VERY close calls to death later I was waiting for Patrick where he said I should. He should have been there ahead of me. he wasn’t. :( So I texted Joscha knowing that Patrick would eventually check his email in his hunt for me.

30 minutes later Patrick was still not there and we had now been separated for almost an hour. Dark was coming fast, I had no idea how many exits from Istanbul to Edirne there actually were, and I knew that even if I could turn the bike around to fight my way back to the city, I would rather sleep at the toll booth than do so.

So I texted Joscha again, told him to tell Patrick I was headed out to the next exit out of Istanbul, and used my last 4 lire (or about 2 Euro) to get my ass back on the highway and out of the city of evil.

Ключевые слова: Istanbul Turkey drivers in Turkey
Карта: N 41° 01.237 E 28° 97.592

Created at: 15. Сентябрь [месяц] 2008

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