at
Sultanahmet. Price: 35 MTL (million Turkish Lira; 1 MTL = 2.23 US Dollar
by Summer 1999) per person. Waited (in desperation) for a Havas; minibus
to transfer to the airport (Atatürk Havalimani), then resorted
to a taxi that chose the bad route (the Çevre Yolu, which was jammed
with chaotic traffic -- the best way is along the shore, on Sahil Yolu),
but we arrived in time for the check-in. The price was 4.5 MTL.
Pleasent flight, beautiful views of Anatolia on the way. In Antalya Airport, picked up a Havas; minibus, asking to be taken to the Tourist information (Turizm danis;ma) office downtown -- since in the Airport they knew nothing about connections to ferryboats. The driver queried many passengers because he didn't know where was that (!), and stopped for quite a while at the Bus Terminal (Otogar) asking the same thing. To cut short a long story, we ended in this same bus terminal several hours later, after being taken by that minibus to an already closed tourism office (it was 5:30 pm), buying bus tickets to Tas;ucu (5 MTL/person) at the Metro office across the street, spending a relaxed hour drinking tea close to a cliff where many locals were taking their promenade, and dining. But the ignorance of the driver, in a touristic resort such as Antalya, about an office he comes by everyday, was a little too much! Antalya by itself is huge and not as interesting as I expected, but at least for land and air traffic is a crucial rotator.
The trip to Tas;ucu was made through the night (arrival near 6 am after 8 hours on the road...) and we arrived beat in that little town which appears to exist for the ship company offices only. We were "fished" by a man waiting for the bus who took us to one of these offices (Hoca Transport), we bought the ticket (11 MTL/person) right away and... waited. At 10 am we assembled at the Hoca office with other passengers, to be taken to the harbour where a further 2.5 hours waiting expected us, only to pass police controls that cost us 1.55 MTL/person. The seabus we took was advertised as crossing to Cyprus in 1.5 hours, actually it took 2 hours and departed with a 25 minutes delay. The views were not too interesting, except for the rising profile of the northern mountain range of Cyprus as we approached the destination (Girne). On arrival, somehow another ship that left earlier from Tas;ucu was just disembarking, thus making for a little hell while waiting for the passport controls. No charges taken, only a stamp on the passport that is very unpopular with Greek authorities... I was feeling so weary that I did not try to avoid it (fortunately, as an EU citizen, I don't need the passport to go to Greece, but Turkey Traveller warns, one may get some really bad temper trying to enter Greek Cyprus with a passport showing such stamps). After crossing the border we saw taxis and minibuses, went into one of the latter (0.4 MTL/person), overcrowded with people and luggage, to be taken to the centre of Girne. It was past 3 pm and this meant it took us over 24 hours, with lots of waiting and bad sleep, to reach the coast of Cyprus from Istanbul.
Just in case, the following are two of those travelling daily back and forth:
Hoca Transport Ltd., offices in Tas;ucu (Turkey) and Lefkos;a (Cyprus), departures from Tas;ucu Mon-Sun at 11:55, from Girne Mon-Sun at 9:30. Tas;ucu office tel.: (0324) 741 4874, fax: (0324) 741 4876.
Fergün Shipping Co. Ltd., offices in Alanya, Tas;ucu and Girne. Tas;ucu office tel.: (0324) 741 2323 or 741 3711.
But I believe it will be worthwhile exploring other operators. The daily traffic on this path seems to be very substantial, giving enough room to several companies and, I suppose, to different timetables.
One possible schedule might be, assuming that there are no ships leaving from Tas;ucu in the afternoon: get an early afternoon flight from Istanbul to Adana, transfer to the Adana bus terminal, buy a ticket to S;iflike (a well-rated town very close to Tas;ucu) and spend the night there. Then get a transportation to Tas;ucu (which, as I reckon, is fairly easy) such that you arrive just one hour before the departure time you have chosen, and that will give you plenty of time to buy tickets, take care of formalities and drink a sip of tea. No need for reservations, as I believe they will stuff the ships as much as they can, but be sure to ask about it when informing about timetables. OK, this takes the same 24 hours, but you will save money in bus tickets and you won't arrive in Cyprus completely worn out as we did.
The schedules for this ship are a smart invitation to buy a round-trip (return) ticket, which costs a more tempting price of 60 US Dollars, and spend a few days (weekend, 3 days or 6 days) in KKTC, such that the traveller has the opportunity to enjoy the privileged characteristics of this Mediterranean island -- well, the northern part, but some Greeks say it is the best part. For example, one can leave Alanya on Friday and come back on Sunday, or do the Monday/Thursday version, or a full week (Mon/Sun, Fri/Thur), or whatever.
But this time there was a compensation: first, right after the exit from Antalya, we crossed a nice mountain park, named Güllükdag'i National Park, covered with pine trees; and later, about halfway between Sögüt and Fethiye, there was an impressive stretch where mountain slopes on the left and on the right built always new majestic sceneries before us. Anatolia is a very mountainous territory (indeed the plains are an exception in the whole of Turkey), and one can expect anything for landscape around the corner, from the regular to the extraordinary -- maybe Pamukkale and Cappadocia make for extremely extraordinary, but I wonder about the rest of the country and its surprising variety of shapes: in this trip we saw some amazing grandeur, and this was very uplifting.
We still had some nice sceneries to enjoy just before sunset, on the way to Dalaman (a rafting resort, as I learned later), coming from Fethiye. By 10 pm we were in Ortaca, we rushed to the Pamukkale desk at the bus station to get their timetable to Izmir the next day (half a dozen departures) and moved to the centre of this nice tourist-free little town to look for a boarding house and a dinner. We found the first, but the second was not available at that time of night -- a snack, back in the bus station, was the best we found!
Once in a bus terminal, ask in those desks what they have to suit your immediate travel plan. Sometimes they sell tickets for other (especially the smaller) companies, seemingly their associates, usually after a quick call on the telephone for confirmation. At these desks English-speaking staff are the rule. But do not buy before you try all desks if you want to get the most convenient that is available at the moment.
Fethiye Koop., Antalya Bus Terminal tel.: (0242) 331 1148/9; central office in Fethiye tel.: (0252) 614 6785, fax: (0252) 612 3564.
Akdeniz, offices in Antalya (main), Denizli, Izmir, Bursa, Istanbul, Samsun, Trabzon, Rize, Eskis;ehir, Ankara, Konya, Kayseri, Antep, Adana, Hatay/Antakya, and others. At the Antalya Bus Terminal, tel.: (0242) 241 6670.
Again, Anatolia provided some stupendous views, in particular the wild slopes covered with olive trees between Yatag'an and Çine. These were very akin to some of my favourite landscapes in North-East Portugal, which until now I thought were unique -- now I know a little better. During the stop in Mug'la I managed to establish a contact with the Turkish Maritime Lines office in Izmir, to know that it would close at 2 pm (perhaps because it was on a Saturday) but would be open for selling tickets the next morning. This helped organizing our time after arrival to Izmir.
Once in the Izmir bus terminal, we decided to visit the Yeni Limani ("new harbour"), the port of departure and the spot where the tickets would be sold, just to get an orientation in this very large city stretching all over the gulf bearing its name. Practically any city bus (holding the company name, ESHOT) leaving from the bus terminal come by the Alsancak train station, wherefrom a 5-minute walk leads to the ship. Really easy. From the hotel, somewhat closer to the traditional center (Konak) and the big international fair of Izmir, any bus would also go to Alsancak, so on Sunday morning I got there in 10 minutes to buy the tickets.
The price for the sea trip was comparatively cheap: the 2-berth outside (A-category) cabin that we took costed 22.5 MTL per person, with all reasonable amenities including private WC with shower, a view to the rear of the ship, towels, etc., and two meals -- dinner (delicious) and breakfast. It runs once a week, on fridays leaving from Istanbul and on sundays from Izmir.
Pamukkale, many offices over the country (like Akdeniz above), terminal in Ortaca tel.: (0252) 282 5176 or 282 5264 or 282 5437, fax: (0252) 282 4162.
Turkish
Maritime Lines (Türkiye Denizcilik Is;letmeleri), offices in
Istanbul, Izmir, Çes;me, Içel/Mersin, Antalya, Bodrum, Marmaris,
Fethiye, Giresun, Samsun, Trabzon, Rize, and (Cyprus) Magosa/Famagusta.
Izmir office tel.: (0232) 464 8864 or 564 8889; fax: (0232) 464 7834. I
must say I always got an excellent response from TDI, not only by phone
or personally at the ticket desk but even before the journey: I asked them
by fax to send me brochures and so they did, very much in time for my departure.
And those brochures were very useful on the spot.
Life in a cruise is the same as this trip Izmir-Istanbul, but multiplied by the number of days it takes: some people spend the time drinking at the bars, some sleep during the day, many read, many play board or card games, all occasionally move to the cabins for physiological duties, or go to the deck to watch the coastline. You are "forced" to relax, that's what it means.
But the trip had its specific entertaining views: after leaving the Izmir gulf, a little before dinner time, we started crossing the narrow channel that separates the Greek island of Lesvos (in Turkish: Midilli) and the mainland. For a few hours (it is a big island and a tight bend) we were flowing with one country on the left, the other on the right, both signalled by spare evening lights. At dawn (by 6:30 am at this time of the year), one could see the sun rise over the bow, while the mountain crests along the Marmara Sea materialized on both sides. Those to starboard must have been close to the sites where the terrible earthquake a few weeks before, on August 17, had major effects. But the best was to come in the end: some 30 minutes before arrival (actually with 2 hours behind schedule, personally I could not care less about being late), we went to the front deck to view the entry to Istanbul. This was a wonderful sight: the most famous monuments, surrounded by gardens, facing you on the left, opposite the islands and later the Asian shores, and right in front the Leander Tower giving way as the Bosphorous started showing up, bit by bit. Amongst the wild agitation of ships of various sizes crossing in front, the French-built "Truva" (Troy in Turkish) made its way to dock at Sarayburnu, the port nearest to the Sirkeci train station and at the foot of the Topkapý Palace.
