Istanbul to Vienna, via Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary

After a long day of driving, we arrived back in Istanbul just after midnight. The next day I met with one of my fathers old business contacts and family friend and toured the Istanbul Terminal Markets. It was amazing how similar it was to New York and it was really nice seeing all the action again. I met up with other members of the Manav family and ate delicious foods and discussed different ideas for the future. I was lucky enough to watch a banana container boat from South America be unloaded which was truly fascinating and got to tour their brand new cold storage facilities. After a few more meetings and a few more games of Tavla, I had to decide how I was going to get back to Germany. To keep up with the idea of always having a new adventure, I decided to do something that EVERYONE thought I was crazy for doing. I was going to take a bus from Istanbul, through Bulgaria, through Serbia, through Hungary and into Austria. After some research, I found a company that did exactly that and the price was about the same of a plane ticket, but it took 26 hours!

The following morning I was picked up by Atilla and after a thirty minute car ride I arrived at the bus terminal.....which was more like an airport! The first part of the ride leaving Istanbul was breath taking and the weather was perfect. As I approach the Bulgarian boarder, the sun started setting and the adventure began. I was the only non Turk on the bus and it was mostly elderly couples that were traveling to Austria to visit relatives. At the boarder, two people were removed from the bus and searched by the police. They were then taken back to the Turkish boarder and not allowed to enter Bulgaria. The Bulgarian police questioned me for a moment and were really curious as to why I was taking a bus and why I had no luggage. I told him I was on vacation and didn't want to take planes and this seemed like a guaranteed adventure. He looked at me like I was crazy. We were then boarded by the Bulgarian police whom told us we all had to pay 5 Euros to avoid being searched. I told the police officer he was welcome to search me and I didn't want to spend the money. He said “This is mandatory payment.” I decided it was then a good idea to forget about trying to argue with a grumpy Bulgarian police officer. As the sunset, I struck up a pleasant conversation with a Turkish/Swiss woman whom had been taking this bus for the past decade because she was terrified of flying. She knew every stop we made, which included stopping three times to give Bulgarian police cartons of cigarettes. Once inside Bulgaria, we stopped at a duty free zone where I was attacked by beautiful women asking if I would buy them cigarettes....apparently anyone traveling through is allowed to purchase 6 cartons of cigarettes at an extremely discounted prices. I pretended I didn't understand them and went to get food. There were dozens of cars that were literally filled with cigarettes.

Somewhere around midnight we crossed the boarder into Serbia and we all had to pass our passports up to the front of the bus and remain on board. About twenty minutes later I was called off the bus by the police. It was FREEZING and he asked me numerous questions in surprisingly good English about why I was on the bus. He seemed to accept my story after looking at me quizzically. At dawn we stopped somewhere in Hungry and I had delicious Goulash for breakfast for 2 Euro. The rest of the ride to Vienna was rather mundane, but the scenery was nice and I was happy to have made it through all the passport checks without too much hassle! Once in Vienna I met up with Kiwi and Moni for a pleasant night of catching up with old friends. The following morning I caught the ICE express back to Germany.