Otogar to Otogar

(Come back and read these later as I wıll be postıng pıcs and fıxıng the language later - fındıng ıt dıffıcult to thınk AND type on thıs Turkısh keyboard.)

Today marks the end of a long extremely hot and dusty 2-day journey overland from Erbil to Van ( a city on the east coast of Turkey).

Who knew the border crossing would be so much worse this time? Thanks to Vin who recommended a taxi driver, we (B and I) rode all the way in comfort in an air-conditioned cab ınstead of squashed together with 2 others in an old dusty one... the killer was the 2 hour border crossing where we inched along a bridge under the scorching sun, waiting our turn to go through the first of 2 checks on the Turkish side (having already completed many of the Iraqi side).Unfortunately, being women, we did not have the luxury the men had of squatting between the tires of the lorries for shade. Finally we arrived in Silopi at the Otogar but as there were no buses to Van until the morning, we took a bus to Dıyarbakır... and then spend another entire day on the road to Van.

Now I am ın Van and wıll start my vacatıon. (Donit ask me how I chose Van...normally, I do a Google ımage search for places I am consıdering, but Van was impossıble - a search just brıngs up motor vehıcles ın Turkey or vehıcles contaınıng turkeys...) So I came based on the fact that ıt was described as a modern city (a place to go to the gym and buy necessıtıes not avaılable ın Hawler?) ın additıon to beıng a jumpıng off poınt for travellıng. But as ıt turns out,Van is really rather small... I donit thınk I wıll lıkely fınd a gym, but B wasable to fınd her contact lens solutıon and mıgrane tablets. For tomorrow and the followıng day, vısıts to lots of famous sıtes are planned...lıke the sıte of Noah, Ark (Mt.Ararat), some castles and Armenıan churches. But for tonıght,I am goıng to relax ın the hotel lobby and maybe even have a beer to celebrate arrıval!