Ancient Turkey

The last four days have included some bus bonding, although it’s clear it will be a difficult task to get to know 45 people in a week, and some visits to ancient sites. To be exact, the ancient sites included Pamukkale, Aphrodisias, Ephesus, Pergamon, Acropolis and Troy. Only having heard of Troy before arriving, I was in awe of these sites to which I had been somewhat ignorant of before. Definitely worth a look for anyone contemplating it in the future. While there have been too many stories to mention a couple of notable ones are the car crash on day two and the pinching of a mascot. Day two, saw a local woman sideswipe the bus. Not much damage to the bus, in fact most didn’t know we hit a car. It turned out the woman and been on the drink, a more serious crime while driving in this country meant the woman did a runner and her partner was left to explain the events to the local police. Story two. After our guide decided that we needed a bus mascot and all we came up with was a small stuffed kiwi, it was declared not good enough for the 35odd Aussies who out-numbered the 10 Kiwis. A day later we had somehow managed to pull a large blow-up kangaroo from no-where… it turned out the kangaroo was stolen in a well-planned heist from one of the other buses. After a couple of days with its new friends appearing in endless photographs, it was returned to its distraught owner.