the return journey

Thursday morning, after breakfast and packing up their lives in Syria, mom and William took me to the Dolmuş lot before going to get a bus to Beruit. From Beruit they flew to Casablanca, and then Bamako, Mali where it is 90 degrees. I, on the other hand, waited for almost 2 hours for enough people to fill the dolmuş so we could leave for Antakya. The ride back to the border was uneventful. When I went to get stamped out of Syria the guys there recognized me and waved. As we were going through customs back into Turkey we got stuck behind a bus carrying a huge amount of stuff. Everyone in line ended up backing up and then went on the sidewalk around the bus. There was a moment when I was worried about getting back into Turkey, but the guy was only confused because he thought I had a one month visa instead of a three month visa. In the dolmuş was an older woman with only some of her face showing, a Turkish man who knew arabic and had lived in the Netherlands for 20 years, and then the driver, who spoke Turkish and Arabic, but I am not sure where he was from. As someone told mom, around here everyone speaks Turkish and Arabic. I think the woman in back with me paid for two seats so she wouldn't have to sit next to a guy.

From the dolmuş lot, I went into a bus office, and got a ticket on the 3 o'clock bus to Adana. I was really worried because they said the ride would take 3 hours and I thought the train I had a ticket for was at 7. There was a service to the bus and fortunately I got a bit of bread to eat before I got on the bus and fell asleep. They showed a movie which I guess was one of a series with these 5 guys, this time in Iraq. But as I kept falling asleep I can't give a better description.

In Adana, I got the service to somewhere downtown, and then a helpful guy took me to a dolmuş to take me to the train station. By this point I had realized that my train was actually at 9 and not 7. Whew. Got to the train station and met the guy who worked there. I had talked to him on the phone the day before when I tried to make a reservation (in Turkish). But I couldn't pay over the phone and the ticket had to be bought that day, so he paid for it and now I was going to get the ticket and pay him back. He was wearing sunglasses and I think could not see well, if at all, and was with a guy missing one eye. After going with them to the ATM and paying, they both got on a motorcycle and drove off. Over the phone the guy did not let me spell out my name for him, and this is how it looked on the ticket - Kentrin Siltsin. Wow.

I went to the nearby kebab place and had some Adana kebab - the thing to do when you are in Adana right. And then waited an hour and a half for my train. I was taking the Toros Express, which turned out not to be very express as it stopped everywhere. On the bright side I had my own compartment in the sleeping car, and the compartment had a sink and heater. On the down side, I thought there was a restaurant car because the train that mom and william took had one. But, for the second time on a long train ride, there was no restaurant car. I folded down my seats and went right to sleep. At 10 in the morning the train stopped for 10 minutes, and everyone rushed the bufe in a chaotic attempt to get something to eat. I ended up with a couple of simit, some cheese, and water. It was enough to get me through the day. We were supposed to get in at 6 but got in at 7. I still maintain though, that if I can have a sleeping car I would rather have a 22 hour train ride than a 15 hour bus ride any day. And going on a train you often are away from the roads and the ride is really beautiful.

After arriving in Haydarpaşa station, I lugged all my stuff up the hill to building, only managing to get the suitcase up half the stairs. Fortunately, Ingo came to my rescue. Door to door, it was a 35 hour trip. And then, being crazy, I stayed home for a couple of hours and went out for the first night of Istanbul Winter Camp.