After a difficult night on the bus from Bulgaria to Turkey, partially due to crossing the border in the wee hours of the morning where we all had to exit the bus to get processed and x-rayed, we entered Istanbul as the sun rose, mosques announced the call to prayer and the city awoke. Leaving the bus was one of the happiest moments in our journey, even though we still had a plane trip to Kuşadasi. Transferring to the airport turned out to be very easy, catching the nearby metro straight to it, however this meant we now had 7 hours to wait for our flight.