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Friday, 23 September, 2005 - Konya, Here We Come
Another great day. And what did we do? We took the bus from Ihlara Village to Aksaray and from Aksaray to Konya.
Our Otel is next to the PTT (Postal, Telephone, Telegram). A Turkish man was very helpful and guided us to the dolmush that will bring us to our Otel.
The bus driver dropped us next to the PTT and after asking few people, we realized that we were dropped at the wrong PTT. We are now in a big city, about 800,000 people, and there are more that one PTT. Some more local people try to help us, getting on another Dolmush, and now we are at the Ulusan Otel.
Ulusan Otel, this is what you get in Turkey for 25 liras (about $19). a room with a double bed and a single bed, a beautiful bathroom, a common living room with beautiful furnitures, a fireplace, a computer and a TV.
We are at Konya now at the Ulusan Otel and Benny is involved with an interesting conversation with another guest in the Otel, a 46 year old man from Gernany. A young couple from Slovenia joined in.
I keep one ear on the conversation while writing at the same time.
We are now traveling for three weeks and this is what I learned so far about traveling in Turkey.
Accommodations: we follow the Lonely Planet budget recommendation and so far we had clean bed, warm water and overall nice accommodations at a price range of 20 to 50 liras. For 20 liras we get a nice room with shower. For 50 liras we also got breakfast and dinner. Mostly we pay 30 liras for an accommodation that includes breakfast. (One lira is worth about 74 cents).
Transportation: if you are not using public transportation you miss a lot of Turkey.
Food: surprisingly we found restaurants to be expensive. Dinner will cost more than the hotel. Produce is inexpensive, so we mostly make our own food.
Luggage and Packing: travel very light, pack you belonging in plastic bags: one bag for 2 shirts, one for 2 pants, one for the extra pair of shoes or sandals, and one for underwear and socks. It takes us few minutes to pack and the backpacks are not heavy.
Laundry: shower time becomes a laundry time. Bring a long a rope and have a tie a line to hang cloths wherever you are.
Planning: do not make any reservation, plan only two days ahead, let things happen.
What do you miss the most? The grandkids and the kids. Email and telephone help a lot. Via Email we can keep in touch with the kids.
I already wrote a lot about the bus station, otogar and the drive in the bus. When you come to the bus station, every one leaves their luggage next to the bus. Nobody will touch it. Today we sat at the end of the bus, in front of me was a display of beautiful scarves that were covering young women, some of them were holding infants. One small child moved to sit next to Benny and kept us amused throughout the ride, to the joy of his mother.
The landscape from Aksaray to Konya is flat, which made us appreciate the landscape that we left.
Konya. First time that we see a crossroad in Turkey. We also see few beggars. I see young women wearing tank tops, no head cover. We see beautiful modern buildings that are painted in interesting colors. We are moving west and we can definitely see that.
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