To get from Goreme to Bodrum was quite an effort, including Victor driving us to the Konya train station for our night train to Izmir, then a taxi to the bus station, then a public bus to Bodrum, then a taxi to the hotel. Phew!
Our compartment on the train
The night train was much more comfortable than the one we took in Vietnam. There were only two berths per cabin in first class, and they were made up with sheets and a blanket (not that we needed it, as we hadn’t realised that closing the curtains also blocks the aircon and we were very hot!) The beds were a bit short for the taller ones among us, and narrow, but for train accommodation they were pretty good.
The dining car had reasonably priced, good solid food, so we didn’t need all the bags of snacks we’d bought in preparation. 🙂
We were all pretty relieved to reach Izmir, especially as the train was running an hour and a half late. We disembarked, trundled our luggage out to the front of the train station and hopped in taxis to the Otogar, or bus station. Our taxi drivers seemed to be taking a page out of the Dodgy Brothers’ manual, double checking with each other what price they’d offered to take us directly to Bodrum (way too much) and then we realised later, a bit of doctoring the meter, since it seemed to jump very quickly from 10 lira to 30! Anyway, we did make it there in one piece.
Since we had to wait an hour for our bus, we set up camp in one of the cafes surrounding the bus station and had breakfast. The food was hot, but the “lentil soup” was more like potato and chicken stock, and poor A had an incident with an extremely hot, pale green, innocuous-looking chilli that we all thought was a small paprika like we’d eaten the night before. Eep!
After realising we were in imminent danger of missing our bus due to having too much fun gasbagging in the café, we ran across the station and loaded our bags onto the bus, just in time.
The bus trip was pretty boring, as they go, but the bus was equipped with personal AV screens in the seat backs. Unfortunately, none worked perfectly, and since my “stop” button was broken, I was stuck with showing everyone behind me a pretty racy film with a few too many naked scenes to be one of the three films available on a public bus!
At last we reached Bodrum, and again transferred to taxis to navigate the narrow, winding cobblestone streets to our hotel. The Bodrum Blu Hotel looked good on the internet, with a lovely pool area and air-conditioned rooms, but reality was a bit less charming, with an incredible lack of cleaning both before and during our stay.
Bodrum itself was a busy beach town, but seemed a bit frantic. The streets were crowded between 6pm until after midnight, and still during the day.
On the Adorya Lyn
On the first evening we went on a cruise out on the sea on a small boat called the Adorya Lyn. The crew offered us drinks and snacks while we anchored in a little bay off one of the islands, then cruised back to land again. Then we went to eat dinner at a restaurant right on the water. The cocktail of the night: the Turkish Kiss, which elicited many giggles!
Live music
When meandering our way back to the hotel, we heard some live music, and headed up some back stairs to a bar overlooking the street, with a guy singing heart-rending songs of lost love… Lots of fun.
Our second day in Bodrum was a day trip over to the Greek island of Kos, a short ferry ride away. Even though the transportation was so short, we still needed to go through proper passport control, since we were going from a non-EU country to an EU one. Still, this meant another couple of stamps on our passports! 🙂
Triple trouble, on the ferry to Kos
Kos was beautiful, but like Bodrum, really touristy. We had lunch in one of the beachfront restaurants and wandered around in the town for a while, looking at some of the antiquities and exploring the shops.
Lots of kitties live on Kos!
Some of us decided that swimming in the Aegean was a non-negotiable activity for us, so we made our way down to the coarse-sanded beachfront which was studded with thousands of sun lounges, right up to the water’s edge. The water was a perfect temperature, but not as clear as we are used to in Australia. We all enjoyed splashing around though! We really are lucky to have so many gorgeous beaches in Australia, and especially that they aren’t so crowded. You couldn’t actually walk through the sunlounges, and had to stick to the path!
The Aegean
Our last stop in Kos was the Wellness Aquarium where we had our feet nibbled by medicine fish. A lovely way to end the trip, and very relaxing.
Dinner on the water
The boat back to Bodrum was uneventful, and we spent a nice hour or two beside the pool before heading out for dinner at one of the other restaurants on the water. They turned into a nightclub at 10pm, so after we ate, we stayed and danced for a while. The DJ would only play one Turkish song for us, but at least he had Tarkan! 🙂
Two Weeks Away 