Getting to Assos

We left Istanbul on Sunday. We had asked our Istanbul choir tour guides their advice about things we should do on our trip. Yashir got very excited and started planning the whole trip in a variety of different ways always using the pronoun 'we' and his favourite phrase "You'll love it", with just the right intonation on the "love". We ended up thinking it was a good idea to have him organize our adventure, booking hotels etc since we don't know the language. Yashir didn't end up coming with us thankfully, because as nice as he is, he just talks way too much. Burak came with us instead which makes for a quieter but still interesting ride.


We stayed overnight in Canakkale and went to see Troy on Monday. The scenery there is absolutely beautiful. We had a very knowledgeable guide that took us around the ruins and explained things, many of which went over my head due to information overload. I think the music theater and bath ruins were my favourite.

During the time in Istanbul there could have been an option of taking a day trip to Troy. It meant a 4-5 hour bus ride to get there, a couple of hours tops to see the ruins and then a 4-5 hour bus ride back. Most people opted out because we just couldn't imagine having to sit on the bus that long. It's a good thing we didn't do that. Though Troy was interesting and informative I think it would have been disappointing after spending all that time on the bus.


Carrying on from Troy we drove through beautiful countryside and typical Turkish villages. We stopped in one (Ezime) to take in sights and sounds of the market. Burak had spent some of his childhood there and wanted to show us what market day in rural Turkey is like. The boy in this picture jumped in when he saw me taking it. I thought he was cute. Behramkale and Assos ended off the day.