Our big decision

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Whilst we were in Rethymno, Crete on Wednesday 7th January, 2009, we were in a bar called La Bamba. We were discussing our travelling and so on. This was following our cancelled ferry to Santorini and the next available ferry was to be on Saturday, thereby extending our stay in Crete for a short while longer.

Whilst we have no schedule, and the delay really made not the slightest difference to us, it did make us realise the shortfalls of travelling around the Greek Islands at this time of the year. Our options are much reduced and to be honest, it is great to be able to travel with the car, but it is expensive.

We only seem to be able to move around the major places by ferry at this time of year, and sometimes it may be the case of going back to Piraeus and out again to do so.

So, Pat suggested that as we both have strong feelings for Cyprus, that we simply head straight there without further delay, and hopefully find somewhere to live.

We are both aware of each others feelings and that both of us don't have any doubts about not needing to live in the UK any longer.

We both have a strong desire to be warmer, and experience more consistent weather. One of the objectives of this journey, was to make sure that we were both happy to be away at this time of year.

Having now spent a week in Kefalonia in November, five weeks on Crete in December and January, all of this time outside the summer season and not good weather day in day out, we still have no doubts of our desire to stay somewhere in this part of the world.

For both of us, Cyprus is a good place to do this. Not least, because every time we see a weather forecast for this part of the world, Nicosia, seems to be at least 20°C or 21°C, always hotter than where we are.

The decision does not rule us out of travelling more of the Greek Islands. In fact we have every intention to still do so. It simply means we would do this in a summer time, without the car, from a a base in Cyprus. We can easily ferry back to Greece and travel at our leisure. With a lot more places open and in full swing.

So, our next move was to figure out how to get to Cyprus. We understood that ferries from Greece to Cyprus, don't start running until April.

However, an option would be to get to Turkey, and then across to Northern Cyprus (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - TRNC), then through the border to The Republic of Cyprus.

So we have to figure out, How to get from Greece to Turkey? Are we allowed into Turkey?
How to get from Turkey to TRNC? Can we cross the border from TRNC into The Republic of Cyprus?

We enlisted the help of a friend who has numerous contacts around the world and asked him to gather some information, from people close to these locations.

Through various elements of research on the internet, we were also able to gradually piece together the jigsaw puzzle.

Our questions were gradually answered, enough to make the decision that the journey was possible.

The first stage was, where to be in Greece to get to Turkey? At this time we were informed (it turned out later to be wrong) that you could only get across from Kos to Bodrum at this time of year. We have since found out that you can across from Rhodes to Marmaris, but it doesn't make any difference.

Hence our decision to move from Crete to Kos, which if you look at a map and think about it in terms of gradually moving around the Islands doesn't make much sense, but might do now, knowing our new plans.

If we found it was not possible for some reason to travel to Cyprus, then we would have continued our travels until April.

So, we needed to move from Crete to Kos. Also we had bought and paid for a ticket to Santorini.

We found out that there were ferries daily from Crete to Piraeus and daily from Piraeus to Kos. which because of the time of year was our only option.

Because our original sailing to Santorini on Wednesday, had been cancelled by the ferry Company, I believed we should be entitled to a full refund. We would therefore make our plans to catch the ferry to Piraeus on Saturday, and visit the GA Ferries office on the same day to claim our refund.

It turned out not to be a problem with the refund and we moved from Crete via Piraeus to Kos.

Once on Kos, we then found out information about the car ferries from Turkey to TRNC, they were daily at midnight, except Friday's and Saturday's, sailing from Tasucu to Girne (Kyrenia).

The car ferry from Kos to Bodrum was Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1530 hours.

The drive from Bodrum to Tasucu according to RAC services on the website was 500 miles.

Originally we had planned to travel from Kos on Wednesday. We had only just arrived on Monday, after two nights on a ferry, so that wasn't a good idea, to travel straight away. But when we found out the Tasucu schedule. thought that it made more sense to stay in Kos until Friday, travel over then and complete the journey to Tasucu over the weekend and travel over Sunday night to TRNC,

In the meantime we had researched the situation regarding entry into Turkey, and it appears we can pay for a visa on arrival for a small fee.

Also, the much bigger question of the situation of crossing the border. There did not appear to be any issues that we could find for the Turk's to let us across and out of Turkey. The Republic of Cyprus is EU, so broadly speaking we should be alright to enter. Everything that we can find, says that they should let us in.

We decided to give it a go.

Next stage was to book the ferry across from Kos to Bodrum. I had seen a few Travel Agents, all together, in one of the streets in town when we arrived.

We found them and one or two were shut. One was open, but I didn't like the look of it. Then Pat spotted one across the road, with lots of Turkey information, so off we went.

It turns out that they have a connection with the ferry company and an office in Bodrum. So, although we asked about Tasucu ferries, and not really expecting any information, she gave us a good lead, once we were on the other side, with their sister office.

The ferry Kos to Bodrum was booked no problem, cost €156.00. We were given a receipt and advised to meet the Agent in the cafe at the pier at two thirty on Friday, who would take us through the boarding, and departure procedures.

The ferry should be the Asim K, and the crossing is about one hour, maybe less.

So, we are all set.

On Thursday, we tried to get some Turkish Lira, for just in case money. The travel agent we booked the crossing through didn't do exchange, but advised to try either the Alpha or National Greek Bank. The Alpha bank didn't have any Lira, but again advised the National Bank, so we went there. The bank was really busy and we took a number and waited.

When I got to the counter, the guy and his neighbour were very helpful. Said that the National Bank of Greece, charged commission of €6 and gave a lousy rate. They advised that we could get money easily on the other side.

Anyway, now you know what was going on behind the scenes the last few days, it only matters now to see what will happen and if we make it to Cyprus.

So read the blog for further installments.

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