Today was crazy! We left at 6:30 am to catch a 10 am flight to Izimir. The airport we were flying out of was about 90 miles from where we were staying and was not the same airport we had flown into. The hotel offered a car service for 100 Euro (we knew it was way overpriced, but they also knew we were leaving at the crack of dawn). By the way everything is priced in Euro since we're in the tourist area and there are ton of Europeans who visit Turkey. So we went to the Tourist Information Kiosk to find alternate modes of transit. We were told to take a tram down the street from our hotel and transfer to a funicular, walk 100 meters and catch a shuttle or we could take a tram and transfer to a ferry, walk 200 meters and take a bus. The first option seemed manageable as the tram and funicular were next to one another. So we arrived to the airport by 8:30ish. The interesting thing is when you arrive you have to go through security and then you obtain your boarding pass and clear security again.
We hung out at Gloria Jean's coffee shop until our flight, which is as popular as Starbucks is in the States.
Our flight was on time, but when we arrived in Izimir, the direct train into Seluck was in 3 hours! So we decided to take a train part of the way and then hop on a mini bus. The mini bus picks up passengers randomly on the way. It was an interesting experience, much safer than what I had read about in South Africa. Many of the passengers were women and children.
So after 7 hours we arrived into Seluk. Upon our many modes of transit we realized it would have been much cheaper and easier to take an overnight bus directly from Istanbul to Seluck for 10 hours. Our intention of flying (1 hour flight) was to have extra time to sight-see. But it did make for a comical journey and a lesson learned.
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