Turkiye!!!

Egads! So leaving Greece ending up being a bit of a clusterf--k. We had booked an overnight train from Thessaloniki (central Greece) that was supposed to leave at 8pm...however, when we went to reconfirm our reservation at the station around 11am, a woman at the ticket office told us, "Ahh...the train has a problem. Many water! Whoosh! So no train today! Maybe no train tomorrow. Or many days. Better you live here forever and learn to speak Greek." Okay, so maybe I made up that last sentence, but that's what it felt like.

We learned that our only option (other than flying) was to take an overnight bus. Now even on my best day, I'm not thrilled about long bus rides. Especially long ones. But now that I pee about 30 times an hour, I was even less enthusiastic. So we ending up having to take a bus that left at 2:30am that morning with NO BATHROOM on it that did not arrive until nearly 3pm the next day (loooong story), but for roughly the same price as the train. :-( All that was missing were the crates of hens overhead to complete the magical experience.

So yes, please cry with me if you've EVER been pregnant (or had a really bad bladder infection) and did not have ready access to a toilet.

It should have only taken 11 hours, but thanks to our semi-crazed bus driver's fondness for unannouced, long meal breaks (his first break came only 90 min. after we left the bus station and lasted for FORTY FIVE MINUTES) and his equal fondness for avoiding freeways and instead driving on narrow, cobblestone streets through people's backyards/beneath their clotheslines (we got stuck on more than one occasion....at one point passersby tried to lift a parked car out of the way so we could squeeze by) - the trip took a lot longer than it should have. If I didn't develop coal miner's lung in Athens from the traffic, I certainly have it now after breathing in cigarette smoke for nearly FOURTEEN HOURS.

But I left out the best part. Because we pulled into Thessaloniki mid-morning and were now not leaving until 2:30am, we realized we probably needed to get a hotel room to rest until around 1:00am. Unfortunately for us, like the flooding in northern Greece, there happenned to be an international film festival in town. Which meant that even though we were practically waving our euro around, bending over and screaming "I'll pay anything! ANYTHING!" we could not find a single room anywhere. Anywhere. That is...except one place. Hotel Acropol. I only have time to say this- toxic mold on the ceilings. Needle covers under the bed. Blood stained walls.

Yes, please weep with me again.

Thankfully, we're in Istanbul now and loving it. One of my favorite cities ever! Cheers!