· o 7:00am shuttle service from Sabancı to Kadıköy
o By
7:15am the shuttle had not appeared, to the consternation of several waiting
would-be passengers. One man knew who to talk to and the shuttle people called
taxis to take us to Kadıköy, but
they sent 2 taxis for 10 people. I was selfish and got in the taxi to go; at
least I heard them say they would order another taxi for the two people left
behind.
o Thanks to the hell-bent speed of the taxi
driver (I had to close my eyes), we got there in plenty of time. He didn’t
really know the exact route to take, but the other two people could give him
directions!
o 8:15am shuttle to the Dudullu bus station
(no big deal)
o At the bus station, I asked one of the
attendants when the bus to Ayvalık would arrive, and he told me to sit and
wait. OK, I waited, and around 9:40 I asked again, but there still was no bus.
Finally, he told me to talk to the man at the ticket counter (whom I should have gone
to directly!), and because I totally could not understand what he said, he took
my ticket, crossed out 9:45am and wrote 10:45am. I stupidly asked “why?” but,
of course, I could not understand the reason either. Fine then, I got tea and a
snack and waited for the bus some more.
o Ah, the bus to Ayvalık arrives—happy happy
joy joy! I hand over my bag, find my seat, and as the bus fills up, it turns
out that someone else has the same seat assignment as I do! Ugh. I must be
looking truly pathetic at this point because the bus driver escorts me over to
the ticket counter and tells them to fix my seat number. They do, and I am
finally on the bus and ready for the next seven hours to Ayvalık! :D
On the bus, the elderly lady sitting next to
me was in the mood to talk; Her name was Şöhret, and her family had
dispersed to Australia, Poland, and the U.S., so she seemed pretty lonely. She
was on her way to a summer house near Ayvalık. Excepting the “nap” I
took, we (I mean she) talked for the whole trip. It was excellent practice
for my Turkish, and she patiently corrected me a few times. We talked about
family, work, travel, vacations, and painting for fun (and probably many other
topics that I didn’t fully understand…)
One interesting part of the journey was the
bus ferry across the Mamara Sea. These are immense ferries that load up with
intercity busses and private cars. While crossing, passengers can get off the
bus and walk around the ferry. I took a couple photos then (see below.)
Hours later, after Şöhret’s stop, I still had another half hour to go. There were tantalizing glimpses
of the sea as we approached. I painstakingly texted Alex that the bus was
getting close, and he asked me to get a taxi or a dolmuş (a shared mini-bus) to meet
him on the waterfront at Ayvalık. I got the taxi and completely mangled my Turkish
so that he drove toward the causeway for Cunda, when what I meant was to go to
the pier for Cunda on the mainland. I managed to stop him and try to explain,
and when he understood the problem, he was mostly patient with me, and in the
end he didn’t charge me the whole cost for the out of the way trip. All’s well
that ends well, because there was Alex waiting for me!
