Great Journey 🏍 Day 286
We went to İstanbul without Malou. What would the three of us want (our son is visiting us here) on just one motorbike?
We arrive by ferry and take a taxi. After all, we first want to bring our luggage to our accommodation.
The taxi driver first guides us past the taxi queue, then winds his way from a pavement car park past all the taxis, and then the roller-coaster ride through İstanbul begins.
The seat belts are defective, the bumper on the car is only half there. The look on the taxi driver's face was somewhat diabolical (judging in retrospect). Should that have worried us?
The taxi driver: a one-off! Driving hands-free seems to be his core competence, his prayer chain is always rolling in one hand, he needs both hands to talk to us. He looks at us, no, not through the mirror. He turns around, he seems to feel the traffic. He doesn't need eyes for that.
We learn that we have landed in a city of almost 25 million people, that the Turks were sleepyheads in the last European Championship game and that when people honk loudly in traffic, they are expressing their love. "I love you" is what they say when taxi drivers honk at each other. What a loving city!
The fact that three lanes are made into five, that scooters suddenly squeeze through between the cars (1 cm space between the respective wing mirrors): no problem at all. Even if someone turns around in the middle lane and comes towards us: "I love you!" and on we go.
I think it was only 15 minutes. It felt like there was no end to it. My heart pounded for a while afterwards, and in my mind I was already formulating a farewell WhatsApp to our family group.
Do I need to mention that Gerd only smiled mildly and continued to talk shop with the taxi driver about the European Football Championship and the sleepyheads there?
#SurvivalDeLuxe #İstanbulTaxi #İstanbul #Istanbul
