Istanbul day 5 to Eceabat (Esheabat)

We woke up this morning feeling a little bit behind the 8 ball after last night’s social night, but still made it up in time for breakfast. Which was good, because all of that hydrating watermelon and cucumber went down an absolute treat with us three thirsty travelers. We had breakfast with Marc from last night and the two English girls, which was quite a good conversation. The previous night we had established that Marc was interested in joining the British foreign services as, well, not a spy, but a foreign correspondent. Once again, the view was fantastic, a very nice way to spend our final morning at the Nobel hostel.
We packed our bags fairly quickly, and were able to leave them downstairs in the foyer once we’d checked out while we were waiting for our shuttle bus to the Istanbul Otogar. During a quick wander through the local bazaar, Doolittle picked up another magnet (her token souvenir of choice), and we saw three very cute little kittens sitting on cushions outside one of the carpet stores.
We went for a walk to some of the old walls that ran along the bay. These would have been the original fortress walls protecting Constantinople from invaders, and for the roads to pass through, sections had been removed. It even rained very briefly at this point.
We returned to the hostel at about 11.45, where our shuttle bus was due to arrive shortly after midday. We wandered across the street and picked up some final baklavas from the patisserie there. We asked the man if he had the best baklava in Istanbul – he stopped to think for a moment, and replied “Second best”. If they were the second best, I would have loved to try the best!

Lapzang, Doolittle and I sat out the front of the hostel to wait for the bus… and we waited… and we waited… and we waited… It got to 12:40, and we decided to go and ask the Acetes travel man if the bus was still coming. He went in to call the bus company, and obviously had some strong words with whoever was on the other end of the line. He came back out and told us that the shuttle would be there shortly.
We waited until 1pm, when he came out to say hello to somebody he knew. He looked at us, walked back inside, and then came over to us and told us that there had been an issue with the computers at the bus company – apparently we hadn’t been put on the pick up list, but the shuttle was coming right now. This was good, although worrying, as our bus to Eceabat was supposed to leave at 1.30. Within 15 minutes the shuttle arrived, and the driver raced us over to the otogar – just in time to see our bus heading for the exit. Our driver got out and waved furiously at the bus driver, who stopped, and with a bit of a grumble, put our bags on the bus, and then us.
Whew! We had made it.

It was a grueling 6 hour drive from Istanbul to Eceabat, which I happened to sleep most of the way. Probably the most memorable moments were a meatball sandwich that I got on one of the stops, and seeing a car that had driven off the road. I’m not quite sure how it happened, because there was a 2 foot ditch beside the road, but the car had come to rest about 10 metres away from the road, both front tyres bent at a 90 degree angle to the way they’re supposed to be, and a group of about 8 people walking away from it so it must have been recent. There were 2 police cars and an ambulance waiting on the road.

We arrived at Eceabat at 7.30 and were met by one of the owners, Zia. He took us to a building that had a lot of Australia road signs (my favorite – Dunny: out back 10 metres). We had a smallish room, but it was very nice, and had brilliant air-con. We dumped our bags and went for a walk, grabbing some cash out and taking a walk along the wharf. As we did so, there was an old fella, necking something from the bottle, who yelled out drunkenly to us as we walked past. I gave him a wave, hoping that he wasn’t yelling something like “The wharf is falling apart! Don’t go out there!” We managed to return safely, though.

As we were walking back along the water front to grab a bite to eat, we ran into our favorite traveling family, Steve, Jo, Riley and Briarne. We just couldn’t seem to get away from them, but it was awesome to see them again. We sat down next to them, and had some tucker and a catch up on what to expect the next day at Gallipoli, as they had done the same tour today. We got super excited when they told us about the snorkeling over a sunken boat, and getting driven around to all of the sights of Gallipoli.

After dinner, we headed back to the room. Doolittle had an early night, and Lapzang and I headed downstairs to have a few beers, and were joined by Steve, who we helped plot out the family’s next for days travel. We ended up going to bed at about 11.30, super-pumped for our day in Gallipoli.