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Day 62 - Fri 16 May 08
Awake at 06:30 so decide to pack up and head out. Surprise, surprise the two guys running the place are asleep. I head up to the main square and find a taxi to take me up to the border. He started at 20l but I talked him down to 13l. It's 14km to the border, and we get there with no issues. In the end I hand over $10, he's not too sure, but it's worth 14l so he accepts it in the end.
The border is a bit of a crush, but I queue up and get my exit stamp. The next queues are for the Turkish side, but I skip that and ask where I can buy my visa (a little knowledge saves a lot of time!). I have to walk past everything pay $15 for a visa stamp, and then return to join the back of the queue. The Turkish side is much more crowded but I get through eventually.
Next it's a question of getting a taxi into Hoppa, there's a number of Taxi's but the price seems to be stuck at $10. In the end I get it for $5. I'm dropped off at the bus station and I locate a coach that's heading for Göreme at 12:00, but it arrives at 05:00 tomorrow! I wonder if I'll get any sleep?
Now that I have my ticket I wander out into the town to get some cash and provisions, and I realise that I've gone back a time zone, so it's still only 09:00! It starts to rain so I head back to the bus station. I manage to climb aboard the bus at 11:20, and it leaves pretty much on time, it then proceeds to stop at every single lamp post on the coast road.
I'm befriended by a lady from Tbilisi who is going even further than me, she'll be on the bus for almost 24hrs.
I didn't get much sleep due to the bloke sitting next to me, he shifts position every 10 seconds with arms and legs akimbo. Worst travelling companion ever.
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