First Turkish Kebab

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The guys who worked at Paris Hotel wrote down the numbers of two buses that went to the main bus station which is actually pretty far from the centre. We stood for a while at what we thought was the right stop until a really friendly guy indicated using German and Turkish that we should be on the other side of the road. The shuttle bus seemed to take forever and got pretty crowded. We are so confused as to the hıerarchy of seat priority in Turkey. İn some countries men always stand up for women of any age and in other countries only younger men do and younger women stand for older men. No one particularly old got on the bus so we didn't give up ours, but one does worry about these things. We arrived at the main bus station the same time a van of armed Jandarma did which was interesting but nothing happened.

Inside the station the sales pitches began. We were both carrying our backpacks and after a quick survey of companies we realised we would need some time to buy the tickets. We put our bags in left luggage and went in search of two tickets to Pamukkale. The bus station is like a shopping mall of companies who run the same routes and they compete against each other to get your business. We had read in guidebooks that you have to haggle to get fair priced tickets but we didn't really have many options open to us. We asked around and none of the companies had any more buses going to Pamukkale that day. After a brief period of consideration we decided that we would just have to change our route around Turkey. Pamukkale changed to Canakkale which we purchased two tickets for by playing two companies off against each other and managed to save five ytl which is two pounds.

It was a couple of hours till our bus to Canakkale was due to leave so we found a café that sold the infamous Iskender kebab. The Israeli guy told us they are better in Bursa than anywhere else in Turkey and the guidebook concurred. Rob really enjoyed his kebab but my wrap was a bit on the dull side.

We arrived in Canakkale around eight. The station was very near the hostel and with a hand drawn map by a friendly Turkish guy we found the hostel with little trouble; it is called Anzac House. We weren't over the moon with the room or the hostel but neither of us could be bothered looking for a new place and it is very cheap.

The town was quite lively but weirdly most people were in bars and cafes to Socialise rather than to eat. We walked around just looking at the place and trying to find somewhere to eat. You can tell that it is a place that lives off tourism, there is the wooden horse used in the film Troy and stalls selling candy floss on wooden horse carts. We did find a place to eat. It was the first place we had seen but then we checked every where else before going back. C'est la Vie. The meal was pretty decent and we both experienced a Penny Lane Wine bar moment whilst eating our Haloumi starter.

At the hostel I had an unpleasant lukewarm shower and then also beheaded myself when the heavy shower head fell. As I walked back to my bedroom I almost broke my neck on the slippy floor. Who knew showering was such a dangerous ordeal. I wrote the diary for a while whilst Rob swotted up on Troy, Gallipoli and all things historical which was enough to put us both to sleep.

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Photos

Iskender Kebab
pide with donner meat on top mixed with tomato sauce and with a side of sour cream type stuff and finally covered in melted butter

This İs A Small Bus Station
Hehehe notice the name of one company......

Turkish Q+A
but we did manage to answer 2

Comments

[kate]

What is ....?
What's a Penny Lane wine bar moment?