Back to Turkey

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After a great spell in Bulgaria, unfortunately we had to head back to Turkey.

It was a sad farewell as we boarded a bus from Plovdiv to Istanbul. I vowed a return trip to see more of the country and of course more of Sophia (there are still a couple of pubs i need to goto).

The bus ride was pretty uneventful. That was until we had to arrange tickets to get from Istanbul back to Erzerum (another 20 hours away)

We got off the bus at the heaving Istanbul otogar around 9pm and straight away got down to the business of finding an overnight bus to Erzerum. Preferably one leaving in the next hour. This prooved to be rather problematic. The only two buses leaving for Erzerum that night were totally full! Frantic and tired we visited bus company after bus company. All told us they didnt run to Erzerum and that the only buses going that way tonight were full.

Now what to do? It was a case of being hungry, tired, still a touch hazy from the last week and really wanting to get to Erzerum to get the visas. Grrrrrrrrr

After a few broken discussions with the Coc Adhana company we brought tickets for the morning overnight bus. Not ideal but at least it would get us out to Erzerum. The next problem was finding a place to stay. It would be a hassle getting into the city and we didnt really want to pay for a night in the otogar hotel. Looked like a long night of wandering the otogar like a pair of stray mangy dogs. But the boys at Coc Adhana came to the rescue. They said we could spend the night on the bus. Sounded good to us!
So thats what happened. Had some dinner and stocked up on snacks. Boarded the bus that the next day and night we would spend 20 hours on, got comfortable (sorta) and kipped up.

So the number of hours on a bus over the past day, and next couple of days would be:

Plovdiv to Istanbul- about 8hrs
Overnight in Istanbul- about 10
Istanbul to Erzerum- 20

Total: 38 hours!

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