summer is coming: Thursday Travel Tales: Greece & Turkey Part II

Last week I left off in the middle of our Greece and Turkey trip. We had just got off a boat in Turkey and managed to get visas to get into the country. We were in the city of Ayvalik and our plan was to get on the next bus to Istanbul. Unfortunately, there was an issue with getting bus tickets. Figuring out the nature of this issue was incredibility difficult because no one at the bus station knew English, so we had to resort to hand gestures and pointing to Turkish words in our guidebook to communicate. Eventually we managed to figure out the problem: the next few buses leaving for Istanbul did have enough seats for us, but the open seats were next to other men. Per Turkish customs the ladies in our group were only allowed to book seats either next to Zach or another lady. So the next bus with enough open seats to satisfy this requirement didn’t leave until 8pm that night.

This was a little hiccup in our plan, since we now had to spend the entire day in the small city of Ayvalik, but since there wasn’t really anything we could do about we walked around the town and tried to enjoy ourselves. The town was small and pretty boring, but eventually we made it to 8pm and boarded our night bus to Istanbul which ended up being the strangest, most uncomfortable bus ride of my life. This is why:

1. Absolutely no one on the bus knew English so every time we stopped (which was often since a lot of the passengers demanded smoke breaks) we were all confused about where we were, why we were stopping, if this was the stop we were supposed to get off at, etc.

2. This bus ride was about 6 hours long and since it was nighttime, we were supposed to sleep on the bus. The problem was the seats were super uncomfortable and the constant stops kept waking us up.

3. In the middle of the bus ride the bus boarded a ferry! Then we were in the cargo of some ferry where it was pitch black and very rocky. This was unsettling because it was completely unexpected and we were worried we had been taken for the duration of the boat ride until we saw light again.

By some miracle we survived the bus ride and managed to get off at the correct stop in Istanbul. From there we took a taxi into the city and checked in to our hotel, took a nap, and then started exploring the city.

Istanbul was great – it’s definitely one of my favorite cities. It’s the first (and only) predominately Muslim city I’ve ever visited, so the routine call to prayers and mosques on the skyline were a nice change. On our first day of exploring we met up with one of Eden’s Turkish friends who showed us around the city, brought us to the best restaurants, and translated for us along the way. Funny thing: Sinan (Eden’s Turkish friend) and Kate (the other friend who was with us on this trip) ended up getting married – you wouldn’t have been able to tell on this trip though. Sinan had another girlfriend in Turkey and Kate, Eden, and I spent a lot of time on the trip making fun of the crazy things she said - like how she loves drinking water while showering and also how she got kidnapped once but they let her go because she said her dad was the Vice President of America).

Anyway, the next day we went to the bazaar and had a lot of fun. Zach got yelled out by a few vendors for insulting them during haggling, but other than that we had a good time.

Our flight home was pretty eventful. While taxiing to the runway the plane veered off abruptly which tipped the airline off that something was seriously wrong with the plane. We all had to deplane and wait for a new part to arrive – which wouldn’t be until the next day. The good thing was Delta put everyone up in an insanely nice hotel, so we got to enjoy one more day in the city on Delta with luxury accommodations. Thankfully our next flight out was much less eventful and we made it home safely. Here are some pictures from the trip: