I needed to get to Bulgaria to present the film No Permanent Address (www.faclimbingfilms.com) so I decide to fly to Istanbul first to do a couple photo days before catching a bus north to Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria). I didn’t have much time to research Istanbul before my trip so everything came as a surprise. My flight landed a 3am and the airport was an hour and half from the downtown core. All I knew was that I wanted to find a hotel downtown without getting robbed. I was traveling with about 10,000 dollars worth of camera gear and I had with me the only copy of my last photo assignment that was four days worth of work.

Istanbul has 19,000,000 people spread across 100 kilometers and everyone has something to sell. My bus arrived in Taksim known for it’s bars and prostitutes but I wasn’t interested. I wanted to get to the old part of the city named Sultanahmet which has the most dense concentration of historical landmarks in the world! I found a taxi that got me to Sultanahmet for 15 Turkish Liras (about 8 euro or 11 dollars) and I stopped at the first hotel I saw. I feel asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Sultanahmet is home to the second largest Mosque in the world. The exterior looks like a futuristic spaceship and inside the grandeur is breathtaking. It is actively used by muslims and everyday high pitched prayers echo through the streets from a network of strategically placed loudspeakers.

I spent time in the markets and wheeled dealed myself a new pair of imitation puma trainers for about 15 euro. You can buy anything including and handy pistol. Made me feel quite safe knowing anyone could buy a gun as easy they could buy a CD player.

After just a couple days in Istanbul I was exhausted. I caught a night bus to Sofia and sat beside an articulate Bulgarian girl who gave me a geography lesson on Bulgaria. As it turns out you can surf the Black Sea.

I made it to the Festival the next morning which was in a little ski town a couple hours from Sofia named Bansko. Bansko is a beautiful town with old Bulgarian homes built to handle the harsh winters. I met up with the Festival Organizers who put all of the guests in a nice hotel. The first night they took our group (Bulgarian climbers, film makers and myself) out for some authentic Bulgarian cuisine. I couldn’t say exactly what we ate other than it was meat or more specifically many meats all wrapped up in some crunchy animal skin….mmmmmm.

CLIMBING
- Although I didn’t climb in Turkey it is a very rocky country with tons of potential and it is cheap.

PHOTOGRAPHY
- It seemed that everyone in Istanbul was a photographer; almost every tourist I saw was walking about with a Nikon SLR around their neck. Since I was traveling with my last assignment I was super paranoid of having my hard-drive go missing. I searched out hiding places in my hotel room to leave it while I was out shooting. I also backed up some important files by secretly storing them on the computer at the nearest internet cafe. That way if I was robbed my assignment wouldn’t have been lost. In the future I will travel with DVDs and mail home back-up copies.

TRAVEL
- Visa to enter Turkey costs 45 euro for Canadians (3 month multi entry)
- Two airports in Istanbul
- Buses in this area are more reliable than trains
- Sultanahmet has the most dense concentration of historical landmarks in the world
- Try and get a fixed price before taking a taxi. If you don’t know the city they will take you on very expense loop to increase your fare.