0700hrs wake up and breakfast in the courtyard. I tell the bloke I have a transfer booked at 0800hrs. “Yes, yes, I know…..bus station…may be 5-10mins late because of traffic” (Yeah, yeah, a few minutes here and a few minutes there and it all starts to get a bit tight on times). He then proceeds to fill the entire table with plates of food nicely presented. Cold meats, roasted red peppers, various cheeses, harissa, bread, green & black olives with herbs, peeled buffalo tomato & cucumber, walnuts, dried apricot & fig, fresh orange juice and a nice milky coffee like your Nan used to make. It’s all rather pleasant and a good start to the day. It’s just me and the bloke – all the other guests are still asleep.
It’s the same bloke that checks me out and asks if I’ve had anything from the minibar.
Only a bottle of water. “We’ll give you that on the house” he replies and tells me to wait in the entrance hall of this merchant’s house (which I’m told is about 150 years old). Shortly after 0800hrs a young lad enters and disappears to the courtyard. A few minutes later and by now it’s 0810hrs and having been told by the girl last night that it’ll take at least 30mins to the bus station but depends on traffic it could be one of those trips that gets a little bit tight for time. The bloke who’d served beakfast appears and says, “OK – let’s go” and promptly lugs my rucksack to his car. We speed through the city listening to the local Turkish radio station which isn’t quite Chris Evans’ Breakfast Show. Where is everyone. There’s not a soul about. The streets are bare and no traffic. I wish Nottingham was like this in rush hour! We speed towards the bus station in about 15mins but dread to think how long it would’ve taken had the traffic been as busy as last night.
Deposited outside and it’s yet another free transfer. This hotel is superb value for money!! I even feel compelled to write a review on Trip Advisor (which is where I discovered it in the first place).
Inside the bus station is a semi-circle of desks numbered 1-32 which upon first glance I wonder if they are check-in desks. My bus departs platform 33 but don’t find desk 33. Do find the Kamilkoc desk and as I have 30mins to spare wander over just to check that my ticket is OK and that they will drop me off at the TCDD rail station. Without further question the clerk hands me a TRL5 (~£2) note and prints out a new ticket which is the bus direct to the TCDD rail station rather than the bus station I had. The bus departs 0830hrs. It’s now 0828hrs. Bloody ‘ell. Was going to have a coffee and catch up on the Daily Telegraph’s website for half an hour. A couple of strides to platform 49 and dump my bag in the hold.
Motion that I’m just going to buy a bottle of water for the journey and he motions to hurry up in that tapping your watch sort of way. Leg it to stall, buy water, leg it back and jump on as the doors close behind me.
It’s a 2+2 seating arrangement rather than the 2+1 on the original bus I’d been booked on to and there’s not much leg room but it’s more comfortable than the Honningsvag-Rovaniemi bus! Attendant dishes out free cups of water and biscuits and I have to juggle that fine line between keeping hydrated and not wanting the loo every 30mins as we’re on a non-stop bus for 2.5hrs!
The Alpine mountain scenery gives way to arid rolling plain with fields of gold that have recently been combined. The bus, surprisingly, has Wi-Fi so pass the journey listening to yesterday’s Anneka Rice Radio 2 show (she’s still got it) on the iplayer Radio app on my phone. This technology never ceases to amaze me.
Arrive Eskishir in just under 2hrs, a lot sooner than expected. It’s actually been quite a pleasant journey notwithstanding the lack of leg room. The seatback TV screens have a channel that show the driver’s view through the windscreen.
As I’m at Eskishir rail station at 1030hrs, a lot earlier than anticipated, I find the ticket office to see if there’s a train to Ankara sooner than the 1245hrs. There is. At 1115hrs. Within 20seconds my ticket is changed without charge and handed over….not like the palaver we had yesterday! She also confirms that tomorrow’s day train is fully booked – just wanted to make sure.
Have to pass security before boarding the high speed train – X-ray machine and body scanner. It seems a permanent fixture rather than a temporary arrangement for the current terror alert we’re encountering. Train is just like the German ICE and we whizz through the countryside at 250km/hr.
Hotel is a 16th century caravanseri with the courtyard now covered with a modern glazed atrium. Adjacent is a transport museum which is actually quite interesting and includes a flour mill from Braunschweig in Germany…..where I used to live.
The citadel entrance is opposite the hotel. It’s a bit of a dump when I walk the “streets”. Derelict houses, manky cats, unmade roads, rubbish strewn about, shops selling weathered postcards that look about as old as the citadel. It’s like some sort of bombed out Balkan village you used to see on the news. Find the entrance to one of the fortresses in the city wall. Plenty of women selling their wares and crocheting handbags and other female stuff. Steep stone steps up onto the fortress walls and I steer clear of the vertical drop.
Great view of Ankara from the high point but not convinced that Ankara’s got with the tourist thing. How many people do you know have said, “Ooh we had a great weekend in Ankara…you must go”.
Quite.
Dinner in the hotel restaurant located in the transport museum. I’m the sole occupant. I assume because the sun hasn’t set yet. They’ll all come flooding in after sunset to feast after the fast. Except. No. They don’t. It’s just me and the waiter. He’s a dead ringer for Rowan Atkinson’s teenage Blackadder. His main phrase is “It’s delicious”. Everything on the menu is delicious. My choice of rack of lamb is delicious. My choice of red wine is delicious. The sparkling water – delicious. The warm bread and olive oil he delights in giving is…..delicious.
In the covered courtyard of the caravanseri tapping away at this blog it suddently dawns on me that I am the only occupant of this hotel. There are no other guests.
Spooky.
Outskirts of Bursa
Bored onboard bus
Enroute to Ankara
Enroute to Ankara
Caravanseri courtyard
Citadel
