road to Gallipoli

Last night Jo and I left our hostel at around 9:15pm to head to the bus station. We said goodbye to Belinda, she is flying out of Istanbul on Monday. She would have liked to come to Gallipoli with us but she didn’t want to risk not getting back in time for her flight to Amman.

Before we left we had asked the Tourist Info guy at our hostel how, where and when we could get a bus to Canakkale. He was extremely unhelpful and was more interested in making a commission out of us than helping us, so much so that he even booked us on a tour even when we just asked about prices and hadn’t decided! That is one thing that we haven’t liked about Turkey. No one helps you unless there is something in it for them. So once we cleared up that we DIDN’T want to spend $200 on a day trip to Troy and Gallipoli (That price doesn’t even include accommodation!) we decided that we would have to do this by ourselves. The Lonely Planet said that we could find cheaper tours in the town, so we trusted that information.

To get to the bus station we had to catch the tram all the way to a stop which connected with the Metro line, which then took us to the bus station. It was pretty easy, however lots of steps to carry luggage up ad down on, which kinda sucked, but each time I had to haul my luggage up a massive flight of stairs there were (in both cases) men aged over the age of 40, picking up my bag and carrying it for me. So I have decided that I like all turkish men over the age of 40. The rest have to prove themselves.

When we got to the bus station at around 10pm, we found out that the bus left at 12:45, so we had to wait a couple if hours, but that was fine. Once on the bus we tried to get some sleep, but the ride was very, very bumpy, and I’m not one for getting car sick, but when I woke up at 2:30 am, I was suddenly feeling very unwell. At first I thought that maybe it was food poisoning, but my tummy didn’t hurt like food poisoning, but nonetheless I grabbed the nearest bag, which unfortunately was the same bag had all my nuts and dried fruit in from the spice market, and was sick. I was so annoyed, not that I was sick, but coz all that food went to waste!!!! And it wasn’t cheap either... And it was meant to last me the next few days for snacks. But anyway. I felt fine after I threw up, so I guess that’s good.

So we got here this morning and headed to the Yellow Rose Pension, however no one answered, so we went a got breakfast (at this bakery and I was eating bread with vegemite and the baker thought it was chocolate spread and asked if he could try some, haha, he didn’t like it very much, but it was funny) and tried an hour later, but still no answer, and after peeping inside the place looked like it was in the middle or renovations. So We walked down the road to a place called Anzac Hotel...but that was 155 a night for a double. So then we walked around the corner to Anzac House Youth Hostel, which is the place I originally booked before coming. Anyway they were extremely unhelpful saying the hostel was closed, they were only running tours, but I argued that I had a booking with them, so how could they be closed? And he was totally useless, and pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about. Anyway so we walked up the road and checked out this place called Konak Hotel and it was only $50 for a double. A little more than we wanted, but we had no hostel to go to.

After we checked in, we went out in the pouring rain to get some info from the tourist office... But of course, with the luck we were already having, it was closed! So we went back to the Anzac Hotel and asked them about tours and they were really really helpful! It’s only 50 lira for a tour of Gallipoli, which we will go on at 12pm today, and we will have to go to Troy tomorrow morning.