İstanbul mornings
Before diving into my entry, think of an Istanbul in the morning. What it may look like?
Time is 6 am; I got used to geting up at that time, but my clock alarm always approves me. I take a 10 minutes shower and prepare to catch the bus at 6.30 am which passes by my house. I usually have 2-3 kinds of combination of clothes for that week. Picking one of the clothes which I haven’t wore the day before, I go out. This winter was not like a winter. It only snowed two times and not very much. It rained a little. A water shortage is expected for this summer.
Usually I get cold in the mornings although it doesn’t rain. The sky is usually dark blue. I walk to the bus station quickly. It is always same, first a 129K bus passes, which typically does not get any passenger since it goes to it’s first station to get started to it’s day. After that a 19D bus passes which goes to Bostancı. And finally a 19 bus arrives. I get on that bus. It is always same 2 seats left unoccupied. I sit down and will to get some sleep. If I’m lucky and there are not so much high schools students, I wake up at Kadıkoy. I usually can’t sleep, because after 2 stations after I get on the bus, the bus is full. High school students are really noisy.
After arriving at Kadıköy, I get out of the bus and see what is happening in Kadıköy. I usually think what I see is the “Istanbul’s undiscovered face”. People are preparing to the day except for the homeless guys sleeping at bus stations and stands. I usually arrive at Kadıköy at 7 am. There are two ships at that that time. One is at 7 am to Kabataş and the other is to Beşiktaş which is at 7.15 am. I usually can’t catch Kabataş ship and get on Beşiktaş ship at 7.02 am. That means I have 13 minutes to sleep. Before geting on the ships I usually buy a toast from the buffet at the bus station. After eating that toast and getting on the ship, I hope I will sleep but guest what? Again high school children. The ship trip passes having half-sleepy – half-awake. By that time, the sky turns to light blue if it is not cloudy. I sometimes see the stage that songs are played during late daytime. That is a very nice idea. People listen to live music when they are traveling. Throughout one of my ship trips I came encountered live music. They play traditional Turkish live music which sounded to me nice.
After getting out the ship at Beşiktaş, I go to the the bus station for one of the 43R or 559C Rumeli Hisarüstü buses. But this time I do not only see high school children but I can also see businessmen and businesswomen. I see the same man bagging to get help.
Time is about 7.35 am and I usually get the bus 43R. I always see the same people on that bus. Again high school students are majority. Their count increases on every station. Other’s decreases and at Etiler station the people left at the bus are only students. Some of them are high school and some of them are university’s students. The university students are I think English preparatory students since they seem very young like high school students.
Finally I reach to school at 8 am. I get out of the bus at Kuzey Campus. I go in the building via the shortcut.
To conclude, on early morning, I see few adults and much high school children. When the time passes number of children decreases and number of adult increases. This is always almost the same every day. When I am to summarize my one and a half hour morning trip every day, may be fifteen minutes of sleep, see every kind of people, taking 3 vehicles, and early Istanbul morning some from sea some from Asia and some from Europe..