Şile, Turkey

Francesca asleep before we left

We left Eskisehir (the place I've been staying for 3 weeks) on the 25th - at 8.15am.

We got the tram to the Otogar, opposite the fake pool and the same place I arrived at on the first day. At 9am our bus left for a 4/5 hour ride to Istanbul.

When we got to Istanbul we were told we should have gotten off an hour before at a previous stop to get to the place we wanted to go to. There was a bus leaving right there but unfortunately Andi was in the toilet so we missed it. We waited for the next one but luckily they still let us take it for free.

We got to another bus stop, still in Istanbul but further out of the center, waited again, and then got onto a small shuttle bus (again for free) that took us to yet another bus stop.

The shuttle bus barely fit all our luggage!

At this bus stop, we got onto a normal public bus that drove for 2 hours before reaching Şile, which is a town by the Black Sea J

We arrived with no idea where to sleep that night, but we decided to eat before searching for a place. After food, we got to the 'cheapest hotel in Şile' (according to a woman on the bus and then the hotel owners themselves) which was still 40 TL per night per person. We decided to try our luck and look for another place.

The night-time view

At that point, an old woman stuck her head out of her window and told us that the apartment below her was empty. We found the owners and managed to bargain ourselves 25 TL per person, per night! PLUS the view from our apartment was just SPECTACULAR! And we had a terrace plus two balconies and 3 rooms for the 6 of us :) This adventure in Şile was like a movie scene, I still can't believe that it's true!

We went to bed pretty quickly and didn't get up until about 12 noon the next day. The view in the day light was even better! We could see the sea for miles and some little fishing boats close by! So so cute!

Breakfast consisted of Simet (some Turkish style bread baked in a circle) and cake and milk :) we're on a budget ;) and couldn't find cereal the night before lol. Once we'd eaten we went to the beach, a short 5 minute walk along the fishing boats and suddenly BAM you were on super soft sand with a blue sea, so beautiful :)

I swam twice in the Black Sea that day and walked along it for about 20 minutes with Andi before we went back into town for Lunch - 6 TL for rice, chicken in a sauce and a salad, pretty descent and the old lady who served us was super super cute!

After lunch we relaxed and then watched the sunset from our apartment, too cute! Haha :) (accidently forgetting to wake up Lili and Rui so they missed it, woops, my bad).

We went for a walk and ended up trying Shisha in a bar with a sea view. I don't really like it, I think smoke just doesn't agree with my body, which I guess is actually a pretty good thing :) plus it didn't taste of strawberry at all to me so was really really pointless lol but the view and company was good, so it was still a nice evening!

The next day, we woke up at around 10am and I went to the beach again with Andi after a similar breakfast to the day before.

As we were walking along the beach, a stray dog joined us and in some of the pictures it looks like we are walking our dog haha then we went to lay down and sunbathe and it came and lay with us!

The dog was so cute (We named it Sandy) but I was scared to touch it as I have read too many travel safe things about stray animals and rabies lol!

We went back to the apartment after about an hour to pack our suitcases and then get some lunch. 6 T.L again in a different place, this time the price included water :)

A puppy that we were given while the owner ate his lunch

At 2.20pm our bus to Istanbul left and it took us roughly 3 hours to get to our new apartment...

Istanbul update coming soon,

Lucy

    xxo