(Will edit and post picture later, spotty internet here)
Our last trip as a group
(though this wasn’t an official program excursion) was to Izmir, Turkey’s 3rd
largest city. Actually, we stayed in
Selcuk, a small town about an hour’s drive from Izmir. Some of us had the great
idea to take the bus from Istanbul to Izmir instead of taking the one hour
flight to save ourselves about $100 bucks. We’d heard good things about Turkish
busses: they have plenty of legroom, in seat movie screens, a “Bus Attendant”
that brought around free crackers and drinks whenever you wanted. The bus even
had free Wifi! No wonder Turks prefer to take a 70 Lira bus ride instead of a
200 Lira flight.
What we didn’t realize was
that the weekend we had planned this trip for was also the start of Bayram, the
holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. This is a huge travel holiday, with
millions of Turks flooding the bus system to make it home to spend time with
their families (think Thanksgiving or Christmas break). We took a couple of
dolmus (minibuses) from our university at about 7pm to the nearest metro
station, took the metro into Taksim Square, where we had dinner and then made
our way to the bus office. We grabbed a shuttle from there to the otogar (bus
station) at about 930.
The shuttle dropped us off at the front of the bus station and everything looked normal at first. But when we went around the back of the station where you actually catch the buses, we were met with the biggest and thickest crowd of people I’ve ever seen in my life; the only thing that may have beaten it was the crowd at the last ever space shuttle launch I went to a few years ago. The only difference was that there were no signs in English like you would see at an airport, and virtually everyone here spoke only Turkish. Apparently, traveling by bus wasn’t that common for a group of foreigners. We walked around aimlessly for about an hour; buses would pull up, there would be an announcement in Turkish, and ten minutes later the bus would pull away. This was happening all around us, and about ¼ of the busses were bound for Izmir. But every time we showed our ticket to a driver, he would shake his head and tell us (in annoyed Turkish) that we were on the wrong bus.
An hour after our bus had been scheduled to depart, we were still wondering the train station trying to find our bus. Luckily, we came across a guy from the University we’re staying at while in Turkey. He spoke pretty good English, and he assured us that we hadn't missed our bus yet, all the buses were just running way late because of the huge amount of people travelling for the holiday. Our new English speaking friend showed us the general area where our bus should arrive and told us how to tell if it was the right one. We finally got on the bus at about 30 minutes after midnight. We had a long (and often times, sweaty) 9 hour bus ride to Izmir, arriving at about 930am. Another hour by dolmus to selcuk, and a shuttle from selcuk to our hostel. All in all, the trip took us about 17 hours, longer than it took me to get out my door in Florida and to our University in Turkey. Totally worth the $100 savings, right?
The shuttle dropped us off at the front of the bus station and everything looked normal at first. But when we went around the back of the station where you actually catch the buses, we were met with the biggest and thickest crowd of people I’ve ever seen in my life; the only thing that may have beaten it was the crowd at the last ever space shuttle launch I went to a few years ago. The only difference was that there were no signs in English like you would see at an airport, and virtually everyone here spoke only Turkish. Apparently, traveling by bus wasn’t that common for a group of foreigners. We walked around aimlessly for about an hour; buses would pull up, there would be an announcement in Turkish, and ten minutes later the bus would pull away. This was happening all around us, and about ¼ of the busses were bound for Izmir. But every time we showed our ticket to a driver, he would shake his head and tell us (in annoyed Turkish) that we were on the wrong bus.
An hour after our bus had been scheduled to depart, we were still wondering the train station trying to find our bus. Luckily, we came across a guy from the University we’re staying at while in Turkey. He spoke pretty good English, and he assured us that we hadn't missed our bus yet, all the buses were just running way late because of the huge amount of people travelling for the holiday. Our new English speaking friend showed us the general area where our bus should arrive and told us how to tell if it was the right one. We finally got on the bus at about 30 minutes after midnight. We had a long (and often times, sweaty) 9 hour bus ride to Izmir, arriving at about 930am. Another hour by dolmus to selcuk, and a shuttle from selcuk to our hostel. All in all, the trip took us about 17 hours, longer than it took me to get out my door in Florida and to our University in Turkey. Totally worth the $100 savings, right?
We dropped our stuff in
our rooms at the hostel, brushed our teeth, and set out immediately to explore
around Selcuk. We saw the house of the Virgin Mary, which is where Mary came to
live after Jesus’ death and the place where she died.
Both Pope Benedict and
Pope John Paull II have celebrated mass here before.
We left Ephesus at about 2
to head back into down town selcuk and grab some lunch. Exhausted by our lack
of sleep and full day of touring, we grabbed the shuttle back to the hostel to
relax by the pool and recover.
The pool and hostel
grounds at Atilla’s Getaway (the name of our hostel) was pretty dang cool. A
nice bar, pool with Greek statue, nomadic hangout area, beach volleyball court,
pool and ping pong tables, and a projector to show movies and tv on the wall.
Dinner and breakfast were included (cooked by Atilla’s mom) and both were
delicious. The trip slowly evolved into a relaxation weekend, with a majority
of the time just spent hanging out around the pool at Atilla’s.
We went to the nearest
beach on the Aegean, once just to lounge, and once to go Kayaking while some of
our group went to tour Pamukale. All
things considered, it was a much needed relaxing weekend (once we got actually
got there!) after our non-stop travel schedule during the rest of our time in
Turkey.
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