We were supposed to be outside our hotel at 6:30am. I wake up to a knock on our room door and Christine yelling, HANNA! It's 6:37!!! I literally flew out of the bed...while yelling a few expletives. Orhan is on the other side of the door, "Are you coming?" YES YES YES, we yell. We get out of the room in about 3 minutes. Orhan is in his pajamas still waiting for us. He takes us to the lobby to pay our hotel bill and the tour guide comes in yelling at us to hurry up. We get on the bus and it's filled with about 15 other people...oops, sorry you all had to wait (is what I should have said...but instead I avoided eye contact). We drive for about an hour, a different tour guide gets on our bus (thank goodness!) and we stop for breakfast on the way to Ephesus. While at breakfast, Christine and I go over to our tour guide to double check that Orhan talked to him about dropping us in Milas on the way back from Ephesus...and what do you know...he has no idea what we're talking about.
Why am I not surprised?
After a bit of pleading, he and the driver agree to drop us off on the way back from Ephesus. Lucky it was him we were asking and not the tour guide rushing us out of the hotel yelling. Along the way we stop at some jewelry-making store where they tried to get us to buy jewelry. Lame. But finally, we made it to Ephesus.
Sadly, my neck and back were killing me this day so I couldn't carry around my good camera, but my iPhone proved to be extremely useful for picture-taking on those days where my body couldn't bear my monstrous piece of equipment.
Ephesus is pretty darn awesome. Lots of Roman ruins about, but the main attraction (at least for me) was the Library of Celsus. I learned about this structure in my Seven Wonders of the Ancient World class and have been dreaming about it ever since. It is so surreal to be so familiar with a piece of art or architecture from studying slide after slide and then seeing it first-hand. Right in front of your eyes. You can touch it (sometimes). You experience it in a whole new way. A deeper way. Sometimes, I find I actually hold my breath. (I know I sound like an oober nerd...and I don't care). This did not bring me to tears, that happens later, in Istanbul. But this is close.
While visiting the ruins we start talking to two girls on the tour with us. Their names are Hala & Lama (beautiful twins) and they are traveling with their father. They are Lebanese, but currently call Dubai their home. They were incredibly sweet and gave us some pointers for Istanbul.
Afterwards, we leave for lunch. Those of us that wish to visit Mary's house jump on the bus and we practically drive straight up a mountain. The grounds are covered with roses, Mary's favorite flower, as Christine shared with me. I have no pictures of this as they were not allowed. This is the house where she lived with John the Baptist and the location where she was assumed into Heaven. When we walk inside there are head scarfs for us to put on. It's a tiny room with an alter in the back. This is one of those places where you can feel the spirituality of it all. Of the air, of the walls. It has an invisible presence about it. Remarkable. Outside there are faucets where you can collect or wash your hands in holy water. As you walk on, there is a section of the wall that is covered in papers, napkins, wrappers, etc. with prayers written to Mary. What a place.
We spend some time with Hala, Lama, and their father as we wait for the rest of the guests who were still visiting. Then back on the bus to return to Bodrum. We remind Ismail (our tour guide) that we need to be dropped in Milas. He remembers. Once we get to Milas, the bus pulls over outside the Otogar for us to jump out. It's of course monsooning. Now, I have no intention of believing that a bus is actually going to stop here from Bodrum on it's way to Konya. I will believe it when I see it. Christine tries to call Orhan from a pay phone and I start wandering the bus station trying to find anyone who speaks English. Eventually an older man that works for one of the companies assures me one is coming. Like I said, I'll believe it when I see it. If I've learned anything from this trip so far it is that things will not go our way. Always have a plan B and always double, triple, & quadruple check.
Once I realize all we can do is wait, I decide, hey, we're in a bus station, let's go ahead and buy the last bus ticket that we need for our trip. I find the man I was talking to earlier and he takes me into the office and tries to help me. I didn't say this earlier, but he really doesn't speak much English. He knows yes. And maybe no...We want to travel from Safranbolu to Sile (a small city on the Black Sea with supposedly good beaches). A great location for us to relax and recover for a couple of days. Guess what: buses don't go to Sile. OOOOOF course not. Instead, he says, we can take a bus from Safranbolu to Istanbul and then an hour bus from Istanbul to Sile (which would be backwards because Sile is in between Safranbolu and Istanbul). Seeing no other option, I say okay, fine. We buy our tickets from Safranbolu to Istanbul. We'll worry about Sile later.
I don't believe I have yet described the sheer number of stray cats and dogs in Turkey. It's unimaginable. They all seem happy. People throw cat food out in the streets every day and the dogs hang out around restaurants where proprietors and patrons feed them table scraps. They tend to be sweet, happy dogs. But it is still so heart-breaking to see them without a companion, shelter, and someone to keep them healthy. So while waiting for our bus to arrive, Christine befriends two beautiful (though dirty) white dogs. They sit with us and we talk to them sweetly and pet them. Then when the bus comes (YES! MIRACULOUSLY IT ACTUALLY COMES!!) they follow us out to the bus. It was so sad. They wouldn't leave us.
We get on the bus (we have the first two seats with a wide view of the road). We chat for a bit and do this and that. Now I stressed over if I want to write this next part. Do I want to remember this years from now. But, it's no use avoiding the bad part of a trip. You can't deny something happened. The bus hit a dog. Christine saw it happen. I felt it happen. It was horrible. I have never in my life felt so instantly sick than at that moment. It was heart-breaking. And sadly, I'm sure it happens a lot since there are so many strays that don't know any better. But it doesn't make it any easier to swallow. That was quite an ending to our day. It was a roller coaster of emotions for sure.
Now we ride through the night to Konya.
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