Friendly border guards!?! - Istanbul, Turkey
5 Stars This place was Amazing visited Sep 11, 2005
We crossed the Turkish border at about lunchtime today. Borders have been getting more and more complicated lately, and this one needed a map and directions. For some reason we couldn't just stay in the truck and have our passports checked there, but had to walk half a mile through no-man's land to the a gi-normous parking lot with a few little booths in it. There were no signs, so we lined up with everyone else, who seemed to be clutching bits of paper along with their passport, which worried us. When we finally got to the window we were utterly astonished to find a helpful border guard! After barking an initial impatient 'paper?' question at us, he realised we had no idea what we were doing, and came out of his little booth to point us toward the border police booths. Turns out we were lining up to declare our cars or something. Oops. Amazingly, the next border guard was also helpful and friendly. I presented my passport at a booth that had no line (turns out it was for turkish people only, or something). The guy took it, looked up my name, and then used it, nicely, while pointing us to the office where I had to buy my visa. And even that was easy. We returned, en-visa'd, to the next booth (which now had a shorter line than the first) and were shown yet more displays of amiability! My visa was stamped without comment, but Kate's student visa earned her a nod of respect! And then we had to explain that we were walking back the way we came to find our truck, which got more surprised and impressed noises from both the guards (the man from the first booth had come over to chat with his colleague while we were still there). Wonders will never cease.