Off to Trabzon today. Left the hotel and stopped by to see Hasan, since his little shop is on the walk out of the castle walls and down to the taxi stand.
His son was there with him - his son greeted me in English and we shook hands.
Hasan was grinning, as always, and greeted me by my first name - in his German accented English.
I told him I was only able to find pricey hotels in Trabzon online and did not want or need a $70.00 USD room. As he was a traveler to over 70 countries, he knew exactly what I meant and wanted.
Hasan opened his laptop, went into the Turkish Google website, pulled up several accommodation websites, made several quick phone calls and in 10 minutes he had reserved a room for me that was 40 Turkish lyra, or $17.61USD. He printed out the hotel name, address and a map of the hotel location. He showed me where the airport was, said that it should cost about 5 lira for a cab, and then he showed me on a map where the bus station was in relation to the hotel......just a block away. I thought "How cool is this? I cannot think of another question."
Hasan, thank you so much for your assistance and hospitality. But then, you are also a traveler.........
We all shook hands, I mounted my backpack and headed down the narrow shop lined street and through the massive Roman arch gateway of the castle, to the taxi stand for the ride downhill to Kizilay.
Funny how Kizilay looked so much different than 4 short days ago when I got off the airport shuttle on 10/1. I was not the least bit intimidated today........
The shuttle to the airport took 30 minutes as we went from the heart of Ankara to the airport on the outskirts of town.
The fare was .5 lira more today.... maybe because it was Sunday.
At the airport I found the "Left Luggage" kiosk and began to inquire about leaving 50% of my stuff at the airport and traveling light along the Black Sea. The attendant did not speak English. As soon as the attendant answered in the negative in Turkish, a guy said "I speak English. How can I help you?"
A fellow traveler, with a cart full of bags he planned to leave some luggage for 24 hours before his next flight tomorrow. Extremely fluent in English, he turned to the attendant and rattled off several Turkish sentences. He then turned to me and said "I live in Australia - have for 40 years. How big is the bag you want to store? How long in storage?"
He was a native Turk, immigrated somehow - he did not say - and I found his Aussie accented English quite entertaining.
The fee for storing 15 pounds of excess baggage was 20 lyra a day - for 8 days. About $20.00 USD more than my hour 20 minute flight to Trabzon. "Screw it, I could throw it all away and repurchase it all again for the $ 80.00 USD they want for storage.
Went to checkin, checked my bag and headed to the boarding gate. Next stop Trabzon on the Black Sea.
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