Revisited the bazaar this morning, both having the vague idea of buying presents, notably for each other. So we wandered the bazaar separately for a while, before meeting again at the coffeeshop. Val was being mysterious about a present she had in mind for me, but eventually the negotiations fell thro’ , so I took the money we had left + popped around the corner to a leatherware shop, where I had made preliminary enquiries about a pair of fur-lined mittens for Val. I offered him about half what he was asking for them, + when he was, naturally enough, unimpressed, I walked back to the café + beckoned to Val, sitting in a window seat, to come out. Except that both Val + the salesman arrived at the café at the same time, tho’ from different directions. In front of Val’s slightly startled gaze, (+ my own embarrassed awareness of it) the salesman thrust the mittens into my hands + obtained from me a TL1000 note. There was no point in Val or I pretending we hadn’t seen the whole transaction, so I duly handed them over as an extra birthday present.
I left Val then – she still wanted to wander, so I strolled around the city a little, taking photos, almost exclusively of domes + minarets, the city is full of them. In my wanderings, I kept running into my footballing colleagues of yesterday – tho’ 2 of them at least took advantage of our brief acquaintance to try + sell me something. They were unsuccessful.
We met again (Val + I) at the café, ate some more, bought half a chicken to take with us, spent the rest of our money on various goodies to eat on our journey, + wandered along to the bus office. Sat there for a while, before being ferried by a couple of Scots blokes in their minibus – they teach English (or Scots) in Istanbul, but moonlight for this bunch as chauffeurs – to another bus agency office. From where, after another hour or so, we climbed aboard a bus. (I had been worried that, having paid a cheap price for our ticket, we would end up with a cheapskate company, but the bus was all that could be desired. We bagged the front 2 seats, which had the advantage of offering the best view, but the disadvantage of meaning we had the first blast from the icy wind which blew in every time the door was opened. We had been careful to spend all of our Turkish money, thinking we would be rushing towards the border, only to be embarrassed when we stopped at a café before the border. Fortunately we were taken pity on, + given tea.
But from there it was a whizz to the border. I had thought it would be more or less a formality, especially leaving a country, but we were held up on the Turkish side for something like 2 hours. It was bitterly cold, with an icy jet blasting in thro’ the almost constantly open doorway, + since we were wearing almost everything warm we had, all we could do was sit + shiver. Every so often, something would happen to make us think we were moving – our passports would come back, or an official would seem to indicate he had dealt with us, but there we sat.
Into Europe proper now, and most definitely the sprint for home, before our money runs out entirely, or we freeze, or both.
