Travellin' Turkey

Early start the next day. We wanted to make sure that we were at Haydarpasa train station well in advance of the departure time of the train, 8.55am, so we got first a tram and then the ferry. The ferry ride across the Bosphorus was really nice.

Once we got to the station we managed to find where our train was, and we were then told by the conductor that there was no dining car service on this train. Or people walking through the train with buffet carts. So, we would have to have all our food with us - bear in mind though that the train would arrive the next day at 11.15am to Antep - so off I went in search of whatever fruit, rolls, sandwiches, water I could find.

Finally we were off. Our compartment was very comfortable, just the 2 bunks, so we were by ourselves. Shame that everyone else in our carriage smoked - it kept wafting into our compartment. The conductor came around and asked us if we wanted some tea, so we had the traditional Apple tea, very nice. He doesn't speak any English, so it was most amusing whenever he wanted to tell us something. He noticed our cameras and every time he saw what he thought was a good photo opportunity, he would come and see us and point to our cameras. So, duly, we would get up, poke the camera out the window, take a photo, show him, get his approval - and then delete it when he left. Some of the things he thought were photo opportunities were, well, to be honest - not.

We did however see an awful lot of Turkey from this train. It was so interesting to see such a different way of life to that which we had seen in the cities. We saw Muslim women, in their head scarves, driving tractors with half the family hanging off the back. We saw one woman walking home via the opposite train track to ours. We saw a whole town turn out to wave goodbye to the train. We saw some old train carriages that had obviously been converted somehow into some sort of shanty accommodation, with, get this - satellite dishes on the roof! People working the fields in their full on muslim kit, kids hanging off the back of utes... you name it, we pretty much well saw it.

And the scenery was pretty amazing too. Late afternoon on the first day and Agnieszka was dozing in the compartment, when the conductor again approached me for one of his 'photo ops'. After I took the 'shot', he asked me if I wanted a 'nescafe' - their version of our normal coffee. I said no, but he insisted, and the next thing I know, he makes me one and invites me to sit down and drink it. In his cabin. Hm. But he kept the door open, so I figured why not, and quickly drank the coffee. I asked him to show me where we were on the map, which he did, then he tried to have a conversation about where I was from etc, but my Turkish being restricted to the phrasebook, the conversation died pretty quick. I then tried to make my leave but he asked about my work, and when he found out I was a music teacher, he cut me a cucumber (go figure?), salted it, gave it to me, and then started singing. Complete with gestures and facial expressions. Like, the guy had seriously turned into Pop Idol or something. Got out of there real quick.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, and actually it was the first time I got a decent night's sleep in a while, to be honest. But on waking the next morning it was clear pretty quick that our expected arrival time of 11.15 was seriously overexaggerated - we ended up arriving at 1.30pm!

We had been told by the dude in the travel agency that we could easily pick up a bus to Aleppo, but this was not as easy as we'd been led to believe. For starters, we had to get a taxi to the other side of town, to the bus station. Then, there wasn't a bus - so after a lengthy and tiring conversation with some guy about prices, we managed to get on a minibus which would take us to Kilis, and from there onto Halep (Aleppo) - for 25 Turkish liras. Thank you.

Of course, it wasn't so simple. We got to Kilis, sure, and then he did drive us on further - to the border, where he just got out, unloaded our stuff, and dumped it in a taxi. We thought he'd made a deal with the taxi driver, although we should have smelled a rat, as the taxi was seriously overcrowded and the guy wanted us to walk through the border whilst he took our luggage. Yeah, and pigs really do fly - like we're going to do that. So we squeezed in with these 2 other guys, and off we went. To Mars.

It felt like that, as we looked around, because just outside the customs building were about 30 odd women, clad in chadors and other serious black muslim kit, all staring at us. Got through Turkish exit ok, then piled back in the taxi (now minus the other 2 guys) for the entrance to Syria.

At the Syrian entrance, first of all the customs guy hadn't heard of Poland, so Agnieszka got our her trusty Europe map and showed him where it was. He eventually figured it out. Then, the taxi driver, using the customs guy as a translator, outlined that he needed, get this, $50 US to take us to Aleppo. Get stuffed. We don't have that sort of money.

Eventually, after much haggling, we got him down to $15 US to take us to the next town where we could get a minibus to Aleppo. Even that was too much, but he wouldn't budge, and we really were in whoop whoop, so we didn't really have much choice.

The minibus was ok, much the same as in other countries, a clapped out old bus with cracked windscreens etc, but we eventually got there in one piece.

Found a hotel, quite cheap, crashed. Phew.