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Excitment is on the rise! I take the tram over the Galata Bridge, full of fishermen. It’s a bright and sunny day, ideal to explore the great city of İstanbul (Istanbul).

After a scary road crossing, I find another funicular! It takes you to the height of the Beyoğlu district, where there’s a lovely pedestrian street split in two by an old heritage tram.

After taking a fat breakfast there, I walk down the hill, to take back the tram further North, up to the ferry terminal. And here we go, for my first boat in years and years (seriously, I think it’s my first time on a boat since visiting Sein Island in 2010!), taking me to another continent. The sheer scale of İstanbul appears even more clearly now, from the middle of the Bosphorus Strait. Both hilly coasts are covered in buildings as far as the eye can see.

I walk down the stairs of the boat, aaaaaand… here I am, in Asia!

I spend the whole afternoon walking randomly, mostly following the coast, and also climbing some hill (this city ain’t flat, lemme tell you). At some point, I am crossing a bridge over a high-speed road, and was surprised by a great view over the Strait and the European side. I draw my photo to take a few pcitures when I hear a strong whistle coming from below. I look towards it and see a soldier standing outside his hut making me large hand signs. I hadn’t seen it before, but there was some kind of military installation here. Well, better not spend the night in a Turkish jail, I keep walking.

A typical aspect of İstanbul is the oure chaos and anarchy that reign on the road. Actually, I don’t think there’s a code. It’s jsut about whoever is the most in a hurry win. Cars (both rolling and parked), thousands of taxis, city and tourist buses, two-wheels of all kinds, pedestrian, restaurant tables, stray dogs, trams… All of them fighting for the right of way, in an unorchestrable klaxophony. Pure madness. Just yesterday, I got completely stuck, full stop, in a traffic jam… while I was pedestrian! The streets are very narrow and winding, crooked even, with half of the width taken by parked vehicles or restaurant terraces, but tourist buses go to the front door of the hotels anyway. And all the taxi drivers that have been working here for their whole life still keep honking as if it’ll change anything. Cars here are very expensive, so you’d think that such a behaviour hardwired to self-destruct would not be happening. But no, instead, they somehow mastered the art of not bonking into each other. Chaos theory perfectly demonstrated.

Ah, it’s another culture.

In the late afternoon, I go back to my native continent, by train. Oh but no, I see what you’re thinking, but there are no bridges with trains over the Bosphorus. But this one, the Marmaray line, is even better, it goes UNDER the Strait, à la Eurostar! How freaking cool is that, to go from one continent to another by under-sea train?! Even crazier, a communter train, which interior is closer to a metro than any other suburban train I’ve taken. Actually I had to look it up on Wikipedia, it’s not classified as a metro for some reasons.

Back at the hostel, I have a lengthy discussion (in French) with an old lady from Canada who’s be living in Turkey on and off for years. It was an interesting talk. Then I hit the streets, hoping to find a bar and make new friends. But not much luck (and shyness kicking in), so I go back to the hostel to sleep.