Montana Day

Public Transportation Abroad

Public transportation is still something of a novelty to me.  There are some places in American where there is decent public transportation, but Montana is not one of them.  With a population density of about 7 people per square mile, it just isn't practical.  Perhaps this lack of experience has warped me, because one my travels, I tend to be excited and entertained by the various modes of travel employed.

Of course, every trip (almost) starts on an airplane.  I've been on a number of airplanes, so the novelty has rather worn off.  Still, it's always a bit of an adventure: making connections, hoping for a nice seat partner, wondering if they'll serve anything to eat or drink…  You know the drill.  But the real adventure starts when you reach the airport of your destination. 

In my journey through Greece and Turkey I traveled by bus, barge, sailboat, ferry, airplane (again), bus, car, van, metro, train, bus, tram, dolmus (like a bus), and did I mention bus?  (I think that was most of them…)

Buses were the most common mode of transportation we used, and were used to cover the largest distances.  A shocking number of my memories are from these many buses. 

I think we first used public buses in Greece.  Our first really memorable experience there was trying to find the bus station in Athens.  If anyone knew where it was, they weren't able to explain it well, and I couldn't find it on a map.  "Take this bus to this stop and then walk to this street" or "take the metro here and then catch this bus" was the closest we got…and as we didn't understand or even read Greek (at least not quickly enough to recognize stops and streets), we opted to take a taxi.

When we finally got to the station, I made sure to mark it on my map.  Coordinates: 38.010118N and 23.722913E 

Once we found the bus station, the rest of that trip (to Delphi) went relatively smoothly. 

Our bus in Athens, once we finally found the station

The bus driver even announced a 10 minute stop in English.  I think that may have been the only English I heard on a bus (in the form of an announcement) over the course of the trip.

The lovely view inside a bus

Once in Delphi we at least knew where the bus station was, but it was also small and had a very limited number of buses leaving each day, and, to top it off, it was closed the only time we tried to go there to ask for information.  Nevertheless we managed to leave the day we intended.  We had an unexpected bus change (and no warning or explanation for us stupid tourists), but we managed to get (and stay) on the right bus.  (This, of course, resulted in the adventure recounted here: To the Home of the Gods)


Being dropped on a highway exit still ranks as one of the worst moments of the trip.  Still, we survived.  But the next day we took a train.

Arriving at the Litochoro exit ramp

The next bus experience was our flight from Thessaloniki to Istanbul.  We had begun to be afraid that we would never find a way to leave Greece, so when we finally found a bus that went to Istanbul, we made quick use of it.  Purchasing tickets ended up being a bit of a fiasco, but once we were on the bus (which was run by a Turkish company) things started to improve.  The journey started with a beverage service (tea and coffee).  It was the first time I had ever been served drinks on a public bus.

It was an uncomfortable journey in general, but that's to be expected when you're on a bus all night, unable to sleep well, and making frequent stops to pick up passengers, have bathroom breaks, and go through border crossings.

Our first stop inside Turkey.  They seemed to like to wash the bus at every possible place.  

We took several other buses in Turkey, some big, some little, some local, some cross-country, some during the day, and some at night.

Departing the Denizli bus station on our way to Istanbul - our last night bus.

Night trips were always exhausting, but saved on time and money (didn't have to pay for a hostel those nights!) Some bus experiences were better than others, but none were as bad as the Delphi-Litochoro run. 

 Our longer bus rides were from Istanbul to Goreme, Goreme to Ankara, Ankara to Antalya, and then Denizli back to Istanbul. We used a number of different companies, but the experiences were much the same.
  1. There were personal TV monitors in the back of every chair. Every seat would have (or be given) headphones and you could select which channel you wished to watch. Some of the movies were even American, though, of course, they had been dubbed over in Turkish. Still, I ended up watching "Up!" about one and a half times on one journey, and it was entertaining even without understanding the words. Other recognizable shows were "Ice Age 3" and "Smurfs." Most of the other shows seemed to be Turkish in origin.

There was usually a "bus-cam" channel too, so you could watch the progress the bus was making as the driver saw it.  

  2. They would offer a snack and beverage service every few hours. Sometimes we got ice cream, sometimes cookies or crackers or cakes, along with tea or coffee or cola. This would happen about 1-3 times, depending on the length of the journey.

  3. They would stop about every 3 hours for a bathroom/food break. These tended to be rather frustrating and inconvenient, for a variety of reasons.
     i. They would usually be too soon (because you were just starting to fall asleep) or too late (because you'd already needed to pee for about an hour).
     ii. They never told us (in English, at least) how long we were going to be at each stop. So stops generally ranged from 10 minutes to 1 hour…we didn't want to wander too far, just in case it was short, but the longer ones seemed quite excessive. How long do you need to use the bathroom, purchase/eat food, and smoke several cigarettes to make up for the last three hours?
     iii. They were usually at gas station type places in the middle of nowhere…which meant that there were no options and they could charge whatever they wanted for everything. Bathrooms were usually extra (a lira or so, which did not guarantee that they would be clean or have TP). Food was, of course, vastly overpriced.

 More local buses and dolmuses we used around Goreme, Ankara, and from Antalya to Olympos to Finike to Pammukale. They also had some similar characteristics.

Riding a bus around Ankara.

  1. They tended to be rather crowded. Not too surprising, but sometimes it was a bit of a challenge fitting two extra bodies and their luggage (small though it was) aboard.

We had to share a tiny rear-facing bench on this bus to Olympus.  I was squeezed against the door and was afraid I would fall out every time the driver opened it.  

   2. The drivers (and passengers) seem to have something against using AC and/or opening windows. Sometimes they would turn on enough air for you to just start feeling comfortable…and then it would be gone again. It made for long, sweaty rides.

  3. Since we hadn't really been to any of the places where we were going, it was a bit of adventure going, stopping, and wondering if this was our stop or not? Should we get off here? I think so…but… Oddly enough, it was times like this that having a GPS along was most handy.


 Yes, all in all, we road quite a lot of buses. I feel like I rather became an expert on Turkish buses.  Someday I hope to go back and see more of the beautiful scenery that flashed by my window as we journeyed on those buses.

Sunrise from the bus window as we made our way back to Istanbul.  

Tubing

The first shock of cold hits your toes and shoots up your spine to your brain, making you start to wonder if you'll make it through this ordeal with all your phalanges and limbs intact.  By the time you are in to your knees you think that you might just escape with a sever case of hypothermia.  You search your mind for possible excuses to leave: "Uh, hey guys, I just forgot, I left the iron on.  I gotta go!" *dash out of the river and down the road back to your warm cabin and bed*  Unfortunately, such excuses are not to be found, and peer pressure is such that you continue to wade deeper.  And then you sit down on your tube and know: you are going to die.  This river is SO COLD that you will be lucky if you escape with your life. 

The river pulls you along as it plunges over and between huge boulders.  It's not called the Boulder River for nothing.  If you are lucky, you avoid falling off your tube and escape banging body parts against rocks and tree branches reaching into the water.  If your are unlucky, the waters around you, just fresh from the snow packs on the mountains, will keep the wounded areas numbed until you leave their embrace. 

You paddle wildly with your hands, in an attempt to avoid the scarier looking parts of the river, while at the same time trying to keep your hands out of the searingly cold water.  It doesn't work very well.  In spite of your best efforts you are almost certain to hit some rocks and go over some rapids that are a little intense for an inter-tube.  However, if you are lucky, you may see some ducks shooting the rapids with you.

The only sounds you hear over the roar of the river are the whoops and hollers of people freezing, banging into rocks, and going over rapids.  And the delighted and slightly terrified laughter: "I don't know what I was thinking, but this is awesome!"

Once your whole body is almost entirely numb, you will reach the point where you emerge from the river and sprint to the 88 degree pool.  Dropping your tubes and stripping off your life jacket you leap into the life-giving warmth of the pool.  Ahhhhh. 

That may have just been the best part of the summer.