Returning to Turkey with Fez Bus finding different
I was reluctant to check out of the Hotel Güven, it had air conditioning and a convenient location but I paid my bill, 20,000,000 lira for two days (about $32.00) and grabbed a taxi. The otogar was not too far, I was there sooner than I wanted to be. My bus didn’t leave until 2:00 p.m., three hours away. I wandered around for awhile, making a point of walking slowly and appreciating every facet of the chai shops, when I suddenly realized that I had left my passport at the hotel. Panic! (The desk clerk had held my passport as insurance that I wouldn’t skip out without paying.) Back to hotel, grab passport, accept profuse apologies from desk clerk, and grab the same taxi again. The taxi driver, certain that he had just dropped me off across town, was mighty astonished.
This time I asked him to take me to see the sacred pools of carp. This is one of the main tourist attractions in town; bible thumpers amongst you will no doubt recall the story of Abraham and the carp. Families were out and about, for a few lira one can buy saucers of Purina carp chow to feed the carp. The carp, who have an easy life there in the pond, are very large and fat in their little world, according to carp. After carp gawking, I wandered over to the bazaar again to get a bite to eat. I settled upon an excellent chicken kabob, which cost me about 40 cents.
Back to the otogar, another two million lira into the ‘taksi’ driver coffers, and then standing around for another couple of hours. I pass the time by getting a haircut from the “berber”. The very good haircut and shampoo comes to 1,300,000 lira, about $2.00, and I round up to 2,000,000. Returning to the waiting room, I think of things that I might like to remember, and whipped out my Palm Pilot to make notes. Such an action does not go unnoticed. Soon, I had a crowd of Kurdish bus drivers standing around me, all clamoring for a chance to use the Palm.
Feeling peckish, I went outside and bought a very spicy burrito-like object to pass the time. It was meatless and loaded with onions, garlic and hot peppers. And garlic. And garlic. I came to regret this particular snack, for I would have been better off just downing a big bowlful of baking soda and vinegar.
The bus left on time, actually four minutes late, which is as on time as one gets in this country. I had window seat #16 which is towards the front. We drove on some pretty crappy roads for awhile, full of passengers, luggage bays below filled with addressed freight, kind of a “next bus out” service. Urfa is just about at the bottom of the country, it is hot and steamy down there. We passed many tobacco fields, the source of all of the tobacco the market hawkers were selling in wholesale amounts (They offer free cigarettes to all so as to get you to try their wares).
I was glad that we were finally on the road. The bus company office where I was waiting had a TV tuned to the Olympics (which bores me) in Turkish (which I do not understand). The only respite was when they would occasionally tune to the music video station and we would all get to watch really bad Turkish crooners. I couldn’t even eavesdrop on conversations, what little Turkish I know was useless; everybody that I met in Urfa speaks Kurdish or Arabic. Screw the official language! When people do speak to me, it is from curiosity and a chance to practice their English. The same theme surfaces again and again: Turkey and America are friends. There is always a big smile when they find out that I am from America. This never changes.
The terrain we passed was fantastic, it reminded me of Colorado or South Dakota. Big, old mountains, lots of crags, not very many trees, mostly oak. The big light in sky went westward, and daylight was over. Obviously then, it was movie time! Out came the video cassette and a dubbed version of some absolutely terrible American movie (pardon the redundancy) was shown. The passengers loved it. It had been taped off of TV and I didn’t get to see the title, but it involved some inept baby snatchers and was filmed in Chicago. If you are ever on this bus, skip the main presentation.
Pg1: Trip to TurkeyPg2: Oludinez and GoremePg3: Sidetrip to Syria?Pg4: Sweat shop near Mt. NemrutPg5: Sacred pools of carpPg6: Trabzon’s Russian Market