Istanbul, Turkey: I missed most of Turkey but I got my Ethiopian visa!!!

Originally I was planning to spend only few days in Istanbul. My Dutchman was flying in for almost 5 days (and we were both ecstatic about a chance to spend some time together after 3 months of not seeing each other). After those few days I was due to meet up my new group of travel companions and drive around Turkey to sightsee other parts of the country before crossing into Syria. Well... My plans ended up changing quite a bit and all because of Ethiopia changing its visa requirements. Before, it was possible to apply for an Ethiopian visa in any Ethiopian embassy around the world (so I was planning to do that in Sudan or Egypt). Now it's required to apply in an Ethiopian embassy in your country of residence. So that meant I needed to send my passport to London... And wait in Istanbul for however long it takes to process the visa and send my passport back to me... Oh well, I am learning very quickly that flexibility is one of the most important virtues one should develop on these kinds of overlanding travels... So I am flexible, not stressing about somethings I have absolutely no control over and I am perfectly willing to spend extra few days in Istanbul, which is after all an amazing town, very friendly for tourists and wonderful for walking around. In the end it turned out that I had to spend an extra week in Istanbul. Of course - typical for me - I had some "interesting" adventures in the process of getting my visa and receiving my passport back: the Ethiopian consul decided to go on a short holiday when my passport was already in the embassy and there wasn't anyone else who could sign my visa (that caused 1 day delay), then the embassy lost the copy of my bank statement and I needed to find a way to send it again from Istanbul (that caused another day delay) and then even DHL ended up disappointing me because they couldn't deliver to Istanbul on weekends (so I lost another 2 days waiting for Monday to come). But now I have my passport, I have my Ethiopian visa and I am ready to go back on the road!

The positive side of my "forced" prolonged stay in Istanbul is that I really had more than sufficient time to explore the city, see every sight in the book and just aimlessly wander the back alleys for hours on end, which is often the best way to find off-the-beaten-track treasures and to make new friends. The mosques (especially the Blue Mosque), Hagia Sophis, Topkapi park and palace, Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar, the Asian side of the river - these are only some of the most beautiful and only some of my favourite places in Istanbul. I even went to the cinema to see "Eat, Pray, Love" and it was even shown in English and not in Turkish (althoght I was ready for the adventure of watching a movie in the local language!)...

The not-so-positive side of my longer-than-intended stay in Istanbul was that my new travel companions went ahead without me to explore the rest of Turkey and I unfortunately missed all the attractions in the country outside Istanbul. But such is life. My priority at the time was to get an Ethiopian visa. Turkey is not going anywhere and I'm sure I'll visit it again soon... Ballooning over Capadocia is supposed to be an unforgettable experience and may be even better if I do it with family or friends...