Contingency Planning

Tuesday 18 October 2011

We are becoming experts at making alternate travel plans when the original plans refuse to cooperate. Once we had left Bozcaada and travelled to the hub town of Çanakkale, we had a choice. The options were a six hour bus ride to the bus depot in Istanbul that was 14 km out of town or a 2 ½ hour ride to the ferry port in Bandirma and a two hour boat ride to the Yenikapi port in Istanbul, a mere 2 km from our hotel. All our advice had been to take the ferry.

The timing was right. The wind had dropped a knot or two over Bozcaada, we caught the 11 AM ferry to the mainland and a minibus was waiting at the ferry ready to take us for the one hour trip to Çanakkale. The next bus to Bandirma was not until 2:30 PM but we had lots of time to make the 6:30 PM ferry to Istanbul. Of course each of the bus rides took a little longer than advertised but we were still in Bandirma in time to get a shuttle bus from the out of town bus station (why do they put them so far out of town?) to the ferry.  All was well except there was no ferry! We never suspected that big ferries could be cancelled but this one was; we assume because of the windy and rainy weather.

We considered staying overnight but decided to find out if there was a bus that evening to Istanbul. The minibus shuttle to the bus station was just loading and there was a 6:30 PM bus to Istanbul. We just made the connection, along with everyone else who had intended to take the ferry. The poor bus driver had his problems too. He tried, along with several trucks to take a short cut on another ferry closer to Istanbul. No ferries were running. One of the major highways was blocked by police. The driver had to take yet another alternate route. We finally reached the Istanbul bus station at 11:50 PM. At least the taxi ride to our hotel was fast, if more expensive at that late hour, and our room was waiting for us. We were glad to get the trip over with, especially as we learned the ferry situation had not improved very much the next day either.

Now we are in Istanbul for the next two days. Today was 6ᵒ C and rainy but the forecast for tomorrow is a high of 17ᵒ C. Of, do we wish the forecast is accurate! There are a few more spots we would like to explore in Istanbul before leaving on Thursday. Wish us luck.