Road to Istanbul! Finally in Asia!

So i wake earlier with my friend and we go for a coffee... We are right next to a big coal mine so there are many truck driving to Istanbul and i should get a ride easy. But it is damn cold and i cant wait outside so i stay in the petrol station cafe and read a bit. And anyway nobody sees me yet, it is foggy and dark... Buses pass, full of workers, the cafe is full of smoke...
An hour or so later i get out and get a ride with a fisherman, he tells me again about the huge fish. not tasty, especially the skin part, you need to remove it. And even then he prefer smaller ones. He drops me further on, where the trucks pass... A paved street, i can not believe it, something mystical with the remaining fog, i believe i am somewhere in the north of France... And a 4 wheel drive stops to bring me closer to the border at the place where the roads to Greece and France split. he works for Peugeot, speaks good French. He drops me and soon a truck driver pulls up. Long time in no truck, plus it is a Turkish one! He speaks no english, little Bulgarian, impossible to communicate. A couple kilometers later he is stopped by the highway control. They check his speed and driving hours in the past 4 hour... he tries to blackmail and fails, he has to stop and i have to find an other ride... i am now a couple kilometers from the Turkish boarder and the next car while bring me there fast.

I pass the 6 or 7 boarder check by foot, get a 15 euro visa and there i am, welcome to Turkey! Soon as i walk a bit, a truck picks me up and will bring me to Istanbul! No englsih so i communicate with basic gestures and learn to count in Turkish. He is a Kurde and drives on and on through eastern Europa wish i would learn more but i am tired and really in a hurry to get to Istanbul. We make a stop to eat and drink tea in a small highway restaurant. Musaka and tea, delicious and very welcome i had nothing to eat today!
As we get closer to Istanbul, 20 kilometers from the center, huge building are being constructed everywhere. I immediately have the impression of a growing, rapidly expanding city. Who will live here? so far from the city?? probably no rich people... Workers? factory workers? i will try to figure out...
I pass the bridge over the bosphorus under the rain and then get of at the next pay toll. I have to cross the 30 lanes of the paytoll to get to the other side and ge back into the center... It is not so hard one by one i make t to the other side. A car is stopped just after the toll counter, i ask for a ride, he is a little surprised but accepts. He is general manager in a drop by drop water irrigation system. This represent 60 % water saving and is an important business in turkey at the time. He brings me to the center.
As usual i go for a sim card, a new phone since mine is lost in the macedonian trains. But i find non cheap enough and soon realize i cant buy anything anyway, i have lost my credit card... I go to an internet cafe and use skype to call the couple numbers i have in Istanbul. Marion is ok to host me!
I rush to her place before she leaves. She meets her boyfriend so she hands me the keys, apologies for not welcoming me properly and tells e i should do as if i was home. So I take a shower and go to sleep :)