I had delayed posting more of my Turkey adventures because I needed to concentrate on my travels with increased security procedures that were imposed on long-distance travelers.
It started with trying to get a bus reservation from Safranbolu that went beyond providing my passport. I will describe these changes below and in future blog entries.
On September 24th, I left the Black Sea village of Amasra by returning to the bus area where I had arrived a couple days earlier, and unfortunately, none of the eating places were open at 7 AM.
I caught the minibus back to Bartin at 7:30 AM and it took a different route than the one I had traveled on. This 1 1/2 hour bus ride of 35 miles was on a windy road that overlooked the Black Sea far below.
When we got into the Safranbolu depot that I had started from, the driver motioned for me to stay on the bus.
He then drove down toward the Safranbolu Otogar, about a mile south of town. I was the only one on the bus and he passed by this Otogar and kept driving until he got to the steel plant town of Karabuk about 5 miles further south of Safranbolu, and dropped me off at the Karabuk Otogar where a Metro bus was about to leave. He was on the phone while we were traveling so I suspect that he had called the Metro bus company to tell them he had a passenger that wanted a ride to Ankara.
I went to the bus station ticket office and bought a Metro bus ticket for 45 Lira for the 2 1/2 hour, 90-mile ride to Ankara. It turned out the person in line behind me was the bus driver who was just waiting for me before leaving. I showed them the security code I had previously gotten and it worked. As a result of the early bus driver’s assistance, I ended up not having to wait for my journey to Ankara.
Shortly after boarding, we passed by the Karabuk Iron & Steel Plant with its belching smokestacks.
Once I got to the Ankara ASTI—bus station, I decided to spend the night back at the Deeps Hostel before continuing on to Istanbul on the YHT high-speed train that I had ridden on before.
I checked in for the night and again went to the Fiesta restaurant where I again enjoyed the musicians and food there.
When I returned to Deeps Hostel, I met up with Banjo, a fellow from Chicago, an ex-pat who had lived in Turkey for the past 8 years. He had described the difficulties he had experienced in trying to get his Turkish girlfriend a US Visa twice before giving up and they drifted apart. I told him about a similar experience I had encountered with a Vietnamese hotel owner who wanted to visit her children who were studying in Santa Clara, California. She succeeded after three tries and I had given a letter of recommendation for her.
Early the following morning I took the subway to the train station to book a return trip to Istanbul on the YHT high-speed train. Unfortunately, they would not sell me a ticket because I was unable to provide a security code that could only be obtained by using a Turkish cell phone to receive it by SMS. I do not travel with a cell phone. I asked if I could have them email me the code—No. I showed them my YHT ticket I got for the earlier trip from Istanbul to Ankara—No. She told me I should take a bus to return to Istanbul.
I quickly got back on the subway, returned to the ASTI bus station, and went to the Metro bus company ticket office. They too now required a security code that you could only obtain by using a Turkish cell phone. Here is the sign that describes how to get, and use the security code via SMS.
Since there were several Metro bus ticket offices scattered around the ASTI, I went to another office and was helped by a guy in line that used his cell phone to get me a security code I could use to get on the 8:30 am bus. That worked for the 5 1/2 hour, 330-mile ride to Istanbul. It would have been 2 hours quicker if I had been able to take the YHT high-speed train.
For future travel around Turkey, I realized I may not be lucky enough to find a willing person to obtain these SMS Turkish cell phone codes. I was looking forward to having Intrepid Travel make all of the travel arrangements for my Turkey Explored 18-day tour between October 5th to the 22nd.
I enjoyed the scenery along the way which changed from mountainous areas to rolling wheat and farm fields. The freeways and toll roads we traveled on were amazing compared to the ones back in the US. They were smooth and well landscaped and well signed compared to the increasingly crumbling infrastructure highways we now have in the US.
Here is the Bosphorus Bridge--Martyrs of July 15--crossing from Asia to Europe as we approach downtown Istanbul.
After touring some of the attractions in Istanbul, I decided that I would try to travel by bus to Edirne, the former capital of the Ottoman Empire, on September 27th, some 3 1/2 hour ride about 147 miles north near the border to Greece and Bulgaria.
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