Local Celebrity: Meet Boji, Istanbul’s Commuter Dog Who Travels Through 29 Metro Stations Each Day
A street dog named Boji has become a local celebrity in Istanbul, Turkey for frequenting the city’s subways, ferries, trams and buses. Boji sometimes travels over 30 kilometers per day, making his rounds through dozens of Metro stations and at least two ferry rides.
“He knows where to go. He knows where to get out,” said Avlin Erol, the head of customer relations at Metro Istanbul.
“He’s such a free spirit,” said Chris McGrath, a Getty Images photographer who recently spent a day following Boji around Istanbul. “All he wants to do is ride on transportation. Every time he goes past a bus or van or any form of transport, he just wants to get on it. It’s really quite bizarre.”
McGrath first learned of Boji on Twitter, and the pup even has his own Twitter and Instagram accounts with nearly 100,000 followers a piece.
“Everybody knows him now and everybody’s seen him,” said McGrath. “He went into one restaurant and two men sort of shooed him away, yelled at him. And then you hear someone else, another restaurant owner, yelling at those guys going: ‘It’s Boji! It’s Boji! Don’t shoo him away!’ So he’s definitely got celebrity status now.”
“He’s totally a perfect dog. Just wanders around. Everybody pats him. He’s super happy.”
Image source: Getty Images
Previous
