Sinop, Turkish Black sea coast.

Leaving Safranbolu was quite difficult, not because the town itself was beatiuful and interesting, it was physically hard for me to actually leave. As with many Turkish towns, it has a couple of different otogar; bus stations, all of which are a few kilometres outside the town centre and all of which serve different destinations.

With this in mind, then, I had no option but to blindly hop on the first minibus that came trundling through the cobbled streets of the old town. I ended up in a place beginning with K, which seemed remotely correct from the morning skim of the guide book. All that was left was to aimless amble about pestering the locals by saying "otogar?" and point down the selection of streets. It worked pretty well. I made it to the otogar, only to be told that it didn't serve my desired destination. I was told to go back to the otogar in a place beggining with K. Back where I just came from, right?

I jumped in a taxi, eager to make haste on the long journey. It was only a few minutes back up the road.

The driver, who looked about 12, turned in the opposite direction and sped down the motorway, away from where I just came. Never mind, he's local, I thought. He's probs taking me on an ace short-cut. Turns out the otogar I needed was in the next town over, two nights accommodation's worth of money down the road.

Pushing my meagre change into my pockets as I walked into the station I was welcomed by a young guy calling over, "Sinop? Sinop?".

Aye boy.

I went to speak his pal behind the desk, who turned out to be the bus driver. As he sorted out my ticket he conducted some banterous chat in Turkish with me, obviously on my behalf, as his mates turned away, stifling their laughter. All I could do was stand their politely and pretend that they were overwhelmed by how cool I looked in my sandals and they simply didn't want to boost my ego.

Later on, the guy who called me over, who turned out to be the on-bus waiter, took pity on me and gave me a couple of slaps on the back when handing me two marble chocolate brioche. It only got better from there. I was tapped on the shoulder on the bus for sole purpose of being told "you are welcome in Turkey", a stranger in Sinop ushered me on to the correct minibus and paid for my ticket, someone pointed out the route to the guesthouse, I was invited to dinner and tea by the family who own it and I got called handsome!

salincak ve ada kavsak, salincak ve ada kavsak...

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