1 August 2008
Today I set out for Troy from Yellow Rose Hostel with a group of 26, a full bus after working a 36-hour day (Yes I know that’s not a day!) with 5 hours sleep. This kind of thing seems to be becoming the norm. I decided yet again to go into Troy but this time I decided to treat myself to a little exploring while the local guide showed the group around….I’d never explored the site on my own and actually had no idea how big it really was. Well, I did but how much can you really get from a site plan on an overhead projector!
I went off first and just sat at the highest point overlooking the Trojan plain and sat there for ages. I’d always wanted to do that and it was wonderful just being there and feeling the magic. I climbed up the North East watch tower and felt the wind in my hair and held my arms out and closed my eyes.
I remembered that the cave the Trojans escaped by was around somewhere and none of the tours actually go to it…so I sent out to find it. It was quite a hike and well outside what would have been the city walls. I walked through some fields where the plants were taller than I was and crossed a small stream. I finally came to the cave and peered inside the tunnel through which Paris and Helen had escaped from Troy’s destruction over 3000 years ago.
I walked back to the gate through a field, disturbing many lizards was I went… I don’t think it was the right way back as when I got back to the gate, I looked as though I had been dragged through a hedge backwards…oh well that was my little adventure fort the day.
As usual there were problems when the group came back, like the transfer bus back to Canakkale not showing up for starters and me having to attempt to get people onto a Dolmuş at the side of the road. Of course this made the driver very angry as he had no idea what the delay was.
We got also had to drop people off in Ayvalik, which traffic wise is a complete nightmare! We picked up our guide for Pergamon there and went off the Bergama restaurant only to find that all the prices to the ancient sites had gone up by 10 lira as of 10am this morning. Horrors! I thought this means I need to get another 10 lira off everyone on the bus. They weren’t impressed as you can probably guess and most people ended up not doing the tour.
After the tour we drove through Izmir, the driver I have has one of the worst attitudes I’ve ever experienced and didn’t want to listen to me, so I was a bit nervous about going through Izmir. I watched him like a hawk the whole way and thankfully we got through the beast.
The worst was not over as we had to drop people at some random hotel in Kuşadasi, which I’d never been to. Foreseeing this would cause a problem I called the office and had someone explain to the driver how to get there in Turkish so there would be no misunderstandings. We got to Kuşadasi and bingo! You guessed it, he hadn’t listened to the instructions. He got down to the beach front and just looked at me with his palms up. I lost it. I went nuts at him, he couldn’t understand a word of what I was saying, but I went nuts at him anyway. I called his boss and explained the situation, his boss was at the airport and couldn’t deal with it. “Well you had better find someone to deal with it” I said “I’m not aimlessly driving around Kuşadasi all night with a bus full of angry passengers!”
Eventually, someone called me and explained it to him again. We dropped the two people off at their hotel. I directed him to Kuşadasi Inn without incident and we all got off the bus at 11pm! I’d got there last time at 8pm and have a reputation for being able to get through that day the quickest. Ivor was surprised that we were there that late, especially as it was me. I ran off the bus and actually hugged Erroll the owner. “Kris! Is there anything at all that you need?” He said. “Yes Erroll, after that day I’ve had I need a hug!”