Bayrampasa was the biggest and most complicated bus station I saw during my 15 months of traveling. I got off the bus completely disoriented. Istanbul made me nervous, even before I stepped foot in Turkey. A city almost as big as Mexico City, with more than 20 million inhabitants, but with a different culture and language that would devour me completely.
At that moment, I thought I had had enough and wanted to go home. Maybe it was the darkness of the night, or because I was morose and sick with a cold. I didn’t have the spirit nor the motivation to continue. I slept all the way from Sofia, Bulgaria, and only woke up when the bus stopped at the border.