I'm still trying to get a hold of HSBC to figure out why I haven't been able to use my Mastercard for the past few days. I'm kind of stuck in Istanbul until I can get the card working again and get a ticket to Barcelona or wherever.
This is the second time in 4 weeks HSBC has frozen my card. The first time, when I was in London, they sent me a fraud prevention email and had me call to verify it was me making purchases abroad. This time, no email. The card is just being declined. I emailed HSBC and they sent me a number to call them collect, but when I called from 2 different public phones here, HSBC's touch-tone menu only worked up to a certain point. When I try to enter a zero to talk to a customer service rep, nothing happens. So I emailed them again and told them to knock off the bull crap and give me a number that connects me directly to a customer service rep. It probably goes without saying, but as soon as I get home and get the card paid off, I'm switching to Visa.
On the other hand, I'm sort of glad I stayed an extra few days in Istanbul. The sun peeked out yesterday, after 2 days of rain, and it was nice all day today, allowing me to walk to Asia. That's right, I walked from Europe to Asia. Well, I kind of hitched a ride across the Bosphorus. But I'll write more about that later.
I also got some R&R yesterday and have put away the idea of rushing through the remainder of the trip. I'd rather see enough in a few places instead of just a little bit in a lot of places. I've done enough running around in the past 6 1/2 weeks.
Once I get to Spain maybe I can mooch off my buddy Jason for 4 weeks, just chilling and saving money before heading home. He might make me work on his farm, but it could be worth it. Even if that's not the case, I'm looking forward to Spain.
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| Hagia Sofia |
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