Photo: Ralph, Wayne & some of the more friendly Kars citizens
That afternoon we took a taxi from downtown to the bus station on the edge of Kars. As we got in, I asked what the fare was. The driver refused to respond. A few minutes later at the bus station he demanded an exorbitant fare. Surrounded by 20 young men who had come out of the bus station, I paid less than the driver wanted. A number of the men in the crowd offered to take us to Erzurum, our destination, for an high fee. We told them we were taking the bus and went inside, followed by an increasing hostile crowd. We went to the ticket counter and asked to buy a ticket. The crowd surrounded us and threatened the ticket seller and told him not to sell us any tickets. There were no police in sight. After a long time an assertive Ronel demanded to buy a ticket, and the ticket seller sold us the tickets. The crowd then drifted away.
It turned out seats were oversold, so Wayne and I had to sit on the steps just behind the driver. We were all relieved to be out of Kars and on the road to Erzurum. At Erzurum we checked into the hotel where we had been before.
Photo: Live sheep tied to top of van, Kars
The next day we visited Nuri at his carpet shop. He told us that, in the area where we had been touring the last few days, there had been fighting with Kurds and a number of people were killed. A friend of his fathers had been killed.
Later that day, I took a bus to Istanbul, leaving Wayne and Ronel in Erzurum. At one of the late night checkpoints, the officer on duty had a real problem with my passport. Because no one spoke English, we could not solve the problem, and he let me go. The next afternoon in Istanbul, I booked a night bus to Sofia.
At the border, about midnight, I found out that I had been traveling without a proper visa for Turkey. A new visa fee of $20 had been instituted which I did not expect, and somehow I slipped through the previous week. I just had to pay the cost of the visa and no fine.
Map of Turkey trip
