Anna in Istanbul


Like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape
September 13, 2008, 5:04 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

I’m escaping like Steve McQueen!

…except not running to Switzerland but another Northern Europe, “S” country with an overwhelming number of blondes. Oh and not while running from the Nazis, on a motorbike, after digging myself out of an internment camp. And hopefully, I’ll succeed without getting shot as I try to navigate a barbed wire border wall…unlike Mr. McQueen.

But otherwise, JUST like Steve McQueen!

So it looks like I will be taking a quick jaunt out of Turkey to renew my turkish visa. The debacle unfolded thusly.

Bogazici University, being the beautiful institution it is, failed to give me the paperwork I needed before I left the US that would allow me to obtain a student visa. Instead, I entered turkey on a tourist visa which allows me to stay for 3 months but no longer on risk of 6 month expulsion and a hefty fine. Currently only 9 days stands between me and the wrath of the Turkish bureaucracy with whom I have spent so many precious hours of my life with recently (I want them back by the way! I’m looking at YOU, Ataturk!)

The final answer from the Yabanci Polis Ofis, the American Embassy, and Bogazici University was that I could not get a visa now that I am in the country. I was informed, so nicely, that I should have done that before I left the United States whichiwouldhavedoneifyourturkishuniversityhadgivenmethestupidpaperwork!

So my options quickly got narrowed down to: get out of the country and come back. I was going to go to Greece to see my friend Eva in Thessalonika but she seems to be on vacation and I haven’t been able to reach her. That option fell to the wayside. Another option, according to the online community of border-runners, was to take a bus at 8 pm from Istanbul to the Bulgarian border, cross over, get a visa stamp, and then get on another shady bus back to Istanbul. Now, because a new visa cannot be issued on the same day as the exit visa, I would officially leave Turkey before midnight one day and cross the border again around 2 in the morning the next day. The city, Svelingrad, where this shady exchange would take place is really small and literally right on the border and, as I’ve heard, is a bit sketchy at night. Because I would be going by myself, I didn’t really feel comfortable with it. I know. I’m a weakling but even I have my limits on stupid situations I’m willing to get myself into (you’re surprised? so am I).

My last options were to fly some place in Europe where I have friends I could stay with for a night or two or stay overnight in an airport. Because most flights are more expensive if you only stay one night, I tried to find a tickets to and from either London, Paris, or Stockholm.

After a long week of banging my head against the dividing glass at information counters, I think my loving family could hear the desperation in my voice and encouraged me to buy a ticket.
SO I’m leaving for Stockholm tonight for two nights. Then back to Istanbul, visa in hand!
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Anyone who could survive the Fung Wah bus
could PROBABLY also survive a sketchy
midnight run to a Bulgarian border
town. However… “probably” don’t cut
it with me. I didn’t get morning sick-
ness and stretch marks so you could end
up on the slave market — or get ptomaine
poisoning from really bad blinis, for that
matter. So, have a fun weekend in Stock-
holm and CALL YOUR MOTHER.

loves you…

Comment by The Mumster September 14, 2008 @ 10:28 am


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