This is my idea of a ferry...like I used to take from the tip of Manhattan to Staten Island when I went to school there my freshman year...
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I was not sure how I would get to Bergama...guide books had various ideas...so I wrote down the sequence of towns: Geyliki, Ezine, Burhaniye and transfer to Bergama. But, great surprise, when the ferry pulled in there was a minibus with Ezine written in front of it. I got on...it was 3TL...about $US1.50.
We went to the Otogar in Ezine...one of the smaller bus stations I had been to. Used by six or seven bus companies...I got a ticket to Bergama...40TL ($20) and it was to go in about 40 minutes. During my wait, buses pulled in and out...
Finally mine came. Metro is one of the good lines...has internet, pull down screens for t.v., radio, doing google searches...a steward who provides water and other services...wood floors under the seats...
The bus was not crowded. I noticed a guy sitting a few seats in front who was playing an English word game on the screen, so I sat by him for a while and I would pronounce the word...and sometimes show him the right button...generally just providing a kind of tech support for learning English...he thanked me when he got off.
Outside we passed olive groves, hills, some vineyards...but most impressive were the cities...all filled with huge apartment complexes...sprawling all over the hills...dense, seemingly new settlements...no signs of older construction...it was as if all Turks lived in these new apartment blocks...
Just amazing!!!! Where are all the people coming from? Where is all the money coming from? Obviously a huge population of young people...huge investments in education...but still...no signs of the kind of slums that ring the cities in Latin America or, for that matter, in the US.
So I was taking this in when the bus stopped...right on the highway...at a kind of intersection of I-70 and I-25...and I was told this was Bergama...I could see a city across from this roundabout but, as the bus pulled off...how to get there?
But a young fellow had gotten off the bus with me. I had seen him get on...he put his suitcase and a suit bag in the compartment underneath where I had my suitcase...so as the bus pulled off (there was maybe a foot of shoulder where we stood near these whizzing cars and trucks), I asked him...."What do we do?"...he spoke English and said...."Well we cross over and my father is going to pick me up but I don't know when."
We gingerly picked our way through traffic...now no shoulders at all...and as we got through the intersection, I spotted a yellow cab heading for us. He stopped. We both got in. As we drove toward the city I asked if he were going to a wedding. He said "no." He was a school teacher in Bozcaada. He was coming home to go with his father to meet his girlfriend's family and ask to be married. So he needed a new suit.
I told the taxi driver (very little English) to drop him off first...and told him I would pay his taxi fare as my wedding present. I am sure had we gone on further he would have invited me to his wedding or even engagement visit. But we came to his stop....
I drove on with the taxi to the guest house. Another great moment in public transportation.
Location:Bergama/Pergamon
