Day 14 – Atilla’s – Pamukkale – Ergidir

Saturday 29th September 2007

Morning dawns at Atilla’s with breakfast to make and lunch sandwiches to be prepared. One of our Irish contingent was still very drunk when he appeared supported by the token bus ginger and provided intelligent commentary including “I have feet, I can’t remember much else right now but I love my feet, they are great for balancing.” Luckily this particular young man is a very entertaining drunk rather than annoying so he provided some welcome mirth and merriment for all.

Packed back on the bus it was time to head to Pamukkale Hot Springs, somewhere that promised much but in my opinion delivered little! After paying 5 Lira to see a site that is in bad shape to say the leat the visions of freely bathing in the natural hot springs were shattered. The only option for a dip was to pay a further 18 Lira to swim in a pool away from the main springs. While some bit the bullet and went for it some were running short of hard currency as a visit to a cash point had not happened since Istanbul. Some managed to sneak in, other tried and failed so for me it was a soggy sandwich on a sun lounger, back on he bus and off to Ergidir.

On route we were to have our first OzBus breakdown. Pulling into a small service area we all jumped off and an unlikely hero stepped forward. Multitool between his teeth and a whisky bottle in his hand (for cleaning pipes apparently) our Irish saviour sank into the engine up to his elbows and performed a miraculous road side repair. In record time we were back on the road.

When we reached our hostel what it lacked in comfort, facilities and personal space it made up for in terms of friendliness, high speed internet and being in a beautiful lakeside town. A quick trip out for a kebab at a local Turkish restaurant then back to the hostel for a Facebook session and then story time! Our on bus journalist’s story on the bus had graced the front page of the travel section of Saturday’s Guardian. Once everyone was sitting comfortably I read the piece out loud to the group who all listened, enthralled and then impressed but a good piece of writing. This was followed by amateur hour where a fellow Ozbuser caused me to cringe in the corner as she read pout parts of my blog to the group.

Having access to the internet I decide to see what the world was saying about us and came across another blogger (www.gadling.com/2007/09/26/ozbus-too-drunk-to-remember/) who had initially been complimentary about my blog but had now changed tune and was obviously disapproving of the way I was treating this trip. To be honest this is my online diary to record my thoughts and experiences and to be honest if you are not a fan of my blog spend five minutes on google or look at my links and you can find other bloggers on this trip and read their versions instead. The members of this bus, young and old are having a collectively great time, many of us have given up work for this and for the first time in years can truly let our hair down for 3 months, if in the first two weeks this means we go to the bar a lot and let loose I am not surprised, if people plan to judge this trip on our reports on it do so at the end, not the beginning!

Ok, rating over for now. It was then off to group rooms, for bed, snoring, under sheet solo shenanigans (so I hear) and one shower and toilet between 20 in the morning it is a good thing we are all friends.