Turkey welcomed us beautifully, despite escapee pets and visa infractions

Krakow to Tbilisi: Day 4

Leaving Bulgaria, Crossing the border into Turkey and spending the night in Istanbul. Distance 365 km.

Spent the night in Istanbul, close to the sea of Marmara, because it is my goal to see as many bodies of water as I can fit into a lifetime.

Day 4 of our journey the weather greeted us with beautiful blue skies and though we were a little apprehensive about the border crossing, we just had to keep going.

We set off after a lovely breakfast that included something similar to Vetkoek/ Oliebollen, which hit the spot for me. And the day’s driving started well seeing that we got the chance to cross the lovely Maritsa river again.

It was not a long way to the border and we felt pretty confident that we would reach Istanbul in daylight.

Just a few kilometers before the border Maria let out a scream that was pretty shocking. Once she composed herself, she was able to let me know that there was a Guinea pig on her foot! It seems I had not secured the cage well after giving Bucket his breakfast and he decided to make a last bid for freedom in Bulgaria. But it was not to be. I secured him back in his cage and off we went.

This border crossing was definitely one I was concerned about. We had heard many horror stories about cars not being allowed into Turkey if the driver wasn’t the owner, the insurance wasn’t the right kind etc. And on top of that, we had the pets and plants we weren’t 100% sure we were allowed to take across the border.

However, our concerns were focused in the wrong direction entirely. In all of our preparation, we did not realise that Americans need visas for Turkey, so there we were, in literal no man’s land between Bulgaria and Turkey, without the visa we needed.

And this is where our great impressions of Turkey as a country and Turkish people started: the lady who informed us about needing a visa called a colleague who spoke even better English to assist us. After allowing us to leave the car in this “neutral zone” and explaining exactly where we needed to go and what we needed to ask for, he accompanied us to the border crossing, on foot. We were allowed to seek the assistance of a kind lady on the other side, who was able to issue an emergency visa. But she needed the payment in cash. However, this might be a fairly common occurrence, as there was a handy cash machine. But it did not dispense Euros, which is what we needed. We returned to the kind lady again and she exchanged the money for us, from her own wallet! Armed with the visa, we headed back to the car for the second part of the crossing, that required us to present all the documentation for the car. This could not have been a smoother process. All the preparation we had done, getting an affidavit and translations of our marriage certificate, as well as the right insurance documentation, meant we were out of there in just a few minutes. The final hurdle was the customs inspection of the car! And even though they saw the stowaway tortoise, too many plants and the two renegade Guinea pigs, we were allowed to enter Turkey!

The sense of relief and gratitude we felt was huge.

Of course we needed coffee after that and stopped to get some when we refueled. We were disappointed not to find a machine inside the service station and sat outside with our sandwiches. The man who refueled the car for us came over and asked if we wanted coffee, and I answered honestly that I really needed coffee. Only to see him head over to the machine, which was outside the shop. He paid for my coffee! It was one of many kind gestures we experienced during our journey across Turkey and another reason it is on my list of countries to return to if possible.

The rest of the drive felt very uneventful after all of that, though Istanbul’s traffic was not a lot of fun. By the time we found our hotel, the only thing I wanted was to see the sea. I figured the hotel surely had a viewing area/ restaurant/ terrace on the roof. It did not. Instead it had the laundry up there, including all the washing lines full of bedding and towels. We snuck up anyway and saw the sea.

And still my desire to be closer to water drove us towards a park, boardwalk of sorts, and finally an amusement park. Maria was incredibly tolerant of my brand of crazy and we were both rewarded with an incredible meal at a very authentic lounge/ shisha bar to round out the evening.

We were finally in Turkey, the final country we needed to cross before getting to Georgia and felt that the remainder of the journey was bound to be good, based on our first impressions.