Last day in Turkey, in a hotel on the sea

It was a long and boring bus trip down from Canakkale to the seaside town of Dikili. There was a brief exciting moment where we stopped at a roadside diner and I tried to order an omlette and some yoghurt. The omlette was easy, but in Turkey, yoghurt is pronounced “yooort”! We were aiming for Ayvalik, but the bus only stopped about 8km from the city. Dikili was also a ferry port, so we decided to take our chances and head another 30km south.In Dikili we just wandered into the first pansion (guesthouse) that we saw to see if they had a room available. There was no one in the reception, and no one at all that we could find. Being the extremely cheap bastards that we are, we dumped our gear in the lounge area and stretched out on the couches to sleep. Just as I was drifting off into a very nice dream, the front door opens with a bang and the frumpy owner comes in to ask us what we’re doing there. Of course I say that we were simply waiting for her to turn up so we could inquire about a room, and start bargaining for a price. She would go no lower than 60 TL, and wouldn’t even let us sleep on the couches for 30! We decided to take the chance that we could sleep at the ferry building.

Boats at the port of Dikili

We left the pansion and walked around the sleepy town. Two cops pulled up next to us on the side of the road and started asking us a bunch of questions. They wanted our passports and wanted to know what we were doing in Dikili. I start laughing and pointing to the huge pack on my back! They then told us to get in the back of the car so we did, wondering what kind of turn our night was taking…..

They flicked on the lights and took us on a ride around town at breakneck speed, trying to impress us I think! I tried to arrange with them to let us sleep at the police station – a quite excellent option I thought! – and although they laughed a lot, they wouldn’t go for it. They started driving us out into the middle of nowhere, with a lot of crumbling and deserted buildings and we’re starting to get a little sketchy…. Finally they pulled up at a dark and deserted apartment block and stopped the car. I was just starting to pray the rosary when they told us that it was a pansion owned by a friend of theirs, and they were trying to get us a free bed!! Unfortunately the place was closed for the winter, so we missed out on the second free sleep of the night.

So we drove back into town with them chatting all the time about where we could sleep for cheap. Eventually they took us to another pansion, which turned out to be owned by the same lady as the one we were at originally!!! She was extremely not impressed that we’d left because of her high price and then brought the cops back to make her give us a cheaper price! Of course we had no idea they were taking us back to the same place, and felt so bad for the lady, especially as we couldn’t explain it to her. 😀 They argued for us on the price and we got it for a solid 40 TL.

Ahhhhh …. excellent last memories in Turkey.

The ferry to take us across the sea to Greece 🙂