From Ohrid to Istanbul

A couple days have passed since our stay at Ohrid. It's a nice and turistic citi y at the shore of a lake with the same name. We made a night on a apartment at the old town, the owner of it told us once and again that there were two girls on the room beside ours, and if that meant any problem to us, I still don't know what he meant. Changing the subject, we took a small walk looking for a place to dinner and then moved back to our room since Ferrran wanted to see FCB & A.Madrid soccer match. On the morning we went visit some little monastery on a cliff at the very shore of the lake, then moved up to the city walls and city fortress, was then when we decided to find a place to leave our backpacks, so walked to the bus station at center, bought tickets to Sofia and went back to take another one last look to old town and eat our beloved pizza.

At 7 p.m. we start our journey to Sofia, arrived there at the harsh hour of 3 a.m. Ferran slept til 8 a.m. on a coffee shop table and read my eyes out. On the morning we met the most dedicated information girl who showed us where to buy a ticket to Istanbul, then we moved out to discover Sofia. You have to know that one is more man without the bag on his back. it just seems you want to walk right after putting it in a storage. The central bus station is not on the center and we didn't really know where we were, so we walked. Finding the center was not a problem, we did pretty well, even found some mosques, a cathedral, a sinagogue and the central park of the city, which cointained an itinerant photograph exhibition which I delighted, even some local skatters whom showed us some of their skills, maybe thinking that those bearded backpackers were expert on them.
Finding our way to the central bus station was a different task. We were a bit lost at the beginning, and got more lost after a beggar persued us with the shout "Hey! Guys, what's your problem?!" in his mouth. I'm pretty sure we made some 'S's, "The Force" had no idea on what "bus station" was, and if was not but for a boy with a heart shape inflaid motive sun glasses, I doubt we had find it. When we asked him our way back to the bus station, he stared at us half amused half thinking we were crazy and said "By walk?" His directions proved quite accurated, at the end of our journey, maybe 150m. away from our destination, we asked again to a couple of women "Excuseme...the central bus station..." "I don't know...I don't know". Me neither, I don't really know if she didn't want to collaborate or she meant "I don't know english", luckily we saw, at that same standing point, 3 buses going by, so, as we guessed, the central bus station was very near. As our bus to Istanbul was going to depart at 23 p.m. and we still had time on the evening we went see a movie on a Mall, we were expecting a bulgarian one with english subitles, was a chinese one with bulgarian ones at the end. Not very bad at least, probably out of this year top 20 ( : P- )

Back to bus station and journey to Istanbul by night. Started with a request of some policemen asking for our passports. Again they laughed at my picture "Yea, its 3 years old pic, I cut my hair..." (*smiles of amusement*) "Ok, ok, go on.". On the start of the trip we met the great american hero. He even made a show off on his powers smashig his head on the bus and not feeling even a passing faint. The turkish sit beside him was so pleased to have such an important figure at his side seat.

We got to make the visa at the Turkish border. 15 euros per person and 2minutes time. Wow!
We also met a couple of Turkish travelling with their son, whom wanted to go to Barcelona to learn more about water ball sport, he didn't talk a word, but the father told us, with some shiny proud, that his little boy was member of national water ball team. Good night and good luck.

Our arrival on Otogar, central bus station of Istanbul, was a bit chaotic. The buses going there and back, taxis using the horn all the time, people shouting. I was half awake half slept, and Ferran was not much better than me. Too many bus trips in too few nights. We needed some minutes to find a bank, with a bank machine and get some turkish liras to get started. Then headed to a internet cafe we had seen and check for some hostels and Iran consulate here at Istanbul. There, we met a couple of backpackers who gave us a map of the city (they were leaving that day) and gave us some good advices. We got to the metro from Otogar to Aksaray, then the tram to Sultanahmet, the entrance of the old town...

And thats quite enough for a post, sorry jejeje