West to Central Turkey Overnight

Overnight bus from Selcuk to Goreme, Cappadocia. This time the surreality of floating around a foreign language is a bit broken by some fellow tourists. A movie is playing in the bus and I can't understand the words but I don't need to - slapstick is pretty universal. This is our second overnight journey and we've become accustomed to the plane like service of Turkish bus rides which are a fifth of the price they are in Canada.

This ride is a bit rockier than the last and we are travelling down rural roads with no lights. As per usual, I fall asleep within the first hour and Kate remains awake. After a number of light wakeups and various albums to put me back to sleep, I notice that we have stopped not at a rest station but on a very tiny offroad. People are standing up in the bus craning their necks to see what is the matter. I'm pretty sure I dozed off again but awoke a few minutes later to hear two older women debating loudly in Turkish. I look outside and there is a nondescript white van with a few people hovering around it. The bus finally starts up again down the tiny road, makes a series of difficult three point turns and we are back on the highway.

Later we find out that an elderly man in the front row had a heart attack. The little white van was an ambulance and he died shortly after it came.

We are two hours delayed but our pattern moves on. I struggle with the idea of sleep but my body seems to push me into it anyway. Later, around 4am, we stop at a rest station. I hate the idea of paying to pee and would normally prefer to find a spot outside but it's Turkey and we seem to have men staring at us everywhere we go. The bathroom smells wretched but the toilets are floor style and fine. I drop my wallet on the wet floor and try not to think about it...

Back on the bus I catch glimpses between heavy eyelids of the hazy and beautiful sunrise over the sandy mountains of central Turkey. A few hours and a cramped van ride later we are in the hot daylight of Goreme. Driving between the bizarre rock faces of fairy chimneys we are greeted by a hot air balloon. With a local population of only 2500, the town still easily has 50 hostels. Back in an ultra touristic locale, we are too tired and used to vendors' pushy offers and local boys' catcalls to give them a second glance. Still, I'm excited.