Travels in Turkey, Part 3 of 12
Minutes after we were wheels down in Istanbul, we started our first Turkish adventure — navigating our way from the airport to our hotel near Taksim Square via the public transit system. Our route included a train, a tram and a funicular! But before we could start the journey, we had to acquire tokens. We stuck a 10TL bill into the token machine, but then we were stumped. My mistake: I had neglected to learn the Turkish for “token”! As we were obviously confused, a man stopped to help us, and then we were off! Thankfully, the turnstiles were quite self-explanatory.
As we went traveled through Istanbul on funicular, tram, train, and ferry, we quickly learned the system and how to get what we needed. First, the tokens. About the size of a quarter and made of plastic, we sometimes had yellow tokens and other times blue ones. I thought they looked like something you might get at a funfair or Chuck-e-Cheese, perhaps. A token is needed for each leg of the journey. Since we were taking train, tram, funicular for on our first trip, we each needed three tokens. A token costs 1.5TL, so even with two transfers, the trip from the airport was quite affordable.
The token machines are, now that we understand them, simple to use. Many only take coins or 5TL or 10TL bills, though some did take 20TL. Usually there is a machine nearby that makes change for 20TL and 50TL bills. I had issues with the token machines not taking my bills, even ones that the change machine had just given me. And once, my bill got stuck halfway in and a somewhat official looking man came to help me get it out — he pried it out using his keys (silly me, I thought he got out the keys in order to open the machine!). The token machine provides a predefined set of choices of how many tokens (jetons) and how much change it will give. Paging through these choices is done with one button. The turnstiles are quite self-explanatory and simple to use. As with most metro systems, you find the right line and the right direction (the end of the line), and you are all set! The in-train maps and real-time information were accurate and useful.
I found the system to be clean and efficient. I didn’t always feel safe; some old man sat down next to me and tried to get Chloe to sit on his lap. Sometimes people were polite about giving seats to women and elderly, but not always. The tram got quite crowded, so big bags are probably not a good idea. We had traveled carry-on only, so our wheeled bags fit nicely under the fold-down seat on the tram and took up no room.
As for some of the other modes of transportation we used while in Turkey:
The ferry across the Bosphorus was lots of fun! It cost the same at the trains/trams/funiculars and took tokens from machines that looked just like the other machines, but, of course, it used different tokens… The ferry dropped us off right at the train station — how convenient is that?
We traveled by overnight train from Istanbul to Ankara. The Hydrapassa station on the Asian side of the Bosphorus is clean and efficient. There are a few stands selling packaged food, a pay toilet and a station restaurant that served us a fairly decent meal. The train was simple, yet clean. The girls absolutely loved getting to sleep in the fold-out bunks in our compartments.
We also flew domestically in Turkey. How wonderful to feel that air travel does not have to be the circus it is in the US! Check-in was fast and smooth, security easy. Simple meals were served on the flights, despite their brief duration.
We rode on one dolmus, the little mini-buses that dominate the roads.
I was not thrilled with the tour bus we rode to Cappadocia. I felt a bit like a prisoner, being told where I was going to go and when. Thankfully, that tour only lasted two days.
The highlight of our transportation vacation was our early morning ride in a hot air balloon in Cappadocia. What a treat!
