You can't be too careful

What was different about my recent trip to Istanbul in terms of planning and preparation was that basically all that was required of me was to pack my stuff and show up at the bus station. Some other people were in charge of finding transportation, booking a hostel, locating the venue; I was freed of all responsibilities. I did however google what one should do and especially what one is strongly advised not do in Istanbul. And I ran across that one:

“Don't go into any bars that don't have a price list readily available. There are many bars who will happily serve you all night without making it obvious that they charge $50 per beer. These bars, which are not confined to the red light district, normally have groups of women who turn out to be Eastern European prosititues. To the proprietors, ignorance of the tariff is no excuse. If you can't afford to pay they are very, very agressive. They will bodily search you for credit cards. Quite what they'd do if you refused to sign the credit card slip is hard to imagine - they would probably debit your card anyway. It would probably be best to sign the slip then contact the credit card company reporting it as stolen and stating your last purchase was at a time well before the extortion.

Istanbul is not the place to wander aimlessly. Before going, make a plan of what you want to see. Stay away from Laleli and Aksaray (unless you need to use the Metro Station). If you can, book your accomodation in the Asian side.

Don't expect any help from the Police, not even the Tourist Police. They resent anything that disrupts their daily routine of smoking and tea drinking.” ^P.S.

I can not know how would’ve I reacted to the following story if it hasn’t been for what I had read. And yet…

On September the 7^th all of us went to see the St.Sofia church and almost all but me and one of the guys-Ivan, went inside; the two of us sat on a bench right across the church to wait. It wasn’t long before a man of 50 approached us; he was common looking-casual suite, clean proper look. After the obligatory questions (“Where are you from? Bulgaria?! Oh, neighbors!” etc) he came to his point. “I have a leather factory. Are you interested?”. Ivan, who minded his words little, replied “I work in a packaging company; are you interested?”. I didn’t pay attention to their conversation (I was busy taking pictures). The man apologized he had run out of business cards and left…to return 10 minutes later with the proposition to show us his factory which had been very near by. Well, he was addressing Ivan. Ivan turned to me “I’ll go. You wait for our friends to show up.” But 5 minutes earlier I witnessed a few policemen questioning some fellow a couple of meters away from me. “There’s no way I’m staying here alone. I’ll go too”. And so we did. Indeed the factory was some 50 m away from where we were. It looked like an office building on the outside and it was on the inside. We climbed the stairs to the second floor where the factory was. The door was open and through it I saw leather clothes and corridors leading to other rooms full with more leather clothes. I didn’t enter the place-I just took a glance at what was inside and stayed at the door. Ivan went in; the owner smiled at me and invited me to follow him. The first and only thing that came to my mind was to say “I’m sorry but the smell of leather makes me sick. I’ll wait outside”. I marched forth and back at the stairs for less than 5 minutes but it seemed like ages had passed before Ivan came out. Meanwhile some men (and men only; no women) where coming to me to invite me in. “No, thank you. I’m quite alright where I am; thank you”. Everybody laughed at me later; “The smell of leather makes her sick!” No one suspected that has been just a lame excuse. I was simply afraid to go in because…well, two clueless tourists, no one knows where we are, we go in, the door closes…do I need to explain why I was afraid!?

P.S. I was told that you will find the same type of warnings if you google safety traveler’s tips for Sofia. And I can’t give my word that they are untrue. There are bad people everywhere. The point is you just can’t be too cautious when you’re outside your home country.