After a couple of hours I reached the border crossing to turkey. The military presence on the bridge made it clear that these two countries had their share of differences in the past. On the Turkish side I found a model border crossing with tourist information where you could get free road maps and other useful info, duty free stores, restaurants and a bank to get money in the local currency. Only downside was that I had to buy an extra insurance for my motorcycle again, because I didn’t have the right papers with me.
Arriving in Istanbul I had the same old problem of finding my way in a big city. After some curving around I found a small hotel very close to the center.