turkey to georgia to turkey again
I arrived in Istanbul Otogar bus terminal a bit before 6am July1. I really don’t like taxi drivers, so rolled by them all looking for the Metro (subway). I exchange 10usd for 15ytl at a kiosk, buy a token, catching the first train of the morning, and get off at Aksaray station. Now the info i had from the internet to find Emniyet bus terminal is that it is behind the McDonald’s which is near the station. Not only is there no Mc, no one around knows where it is either. Of course the taxi drivers are like vultures, so i steer clear of them. After wandering around with my heavy stuff, i finally find a policeman who tells me the bus terminal is 50m behind the Avrupa Goz building. That is easily visible, and he is very correct, except the Emniyet bus terminal is around 200m behind that building. Happiness 🙂
It is past 7am now, and i walk into the smallish terminal. Otogar bus terminal must be one of the largest in the world, but this one is quite small. It seems to only service buses going towards Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Walking into the area, 2 groups of men appear. One from each group grabs an arm, and i become a human tug-of-rope. I’m not amused, but my angry-painful reaction seems to amuse them. I look at the info i wrote down from the internet. It says Maghogdomlu and Metro are the two better choices. They were probably correct on “Metro”. But the Metro office is not open, and one arm is taken by this Maghodghomulu or whatever guy, so i buy a 40usd ticket and go out trying to lay flat in on the sidewalk in front of a mosque for an hour, then sightsee a cool, old neighborhood that i remember from 3 years ago, then lie on some more cement by the sea, then back to my bus departure at noon. I’m tired. For some reason, nearly all the companies’ buses leave about the same time.
Some young Azerbaijani man sits next to me for a while and talks mostly interestingly, but i can tell he is not listening to anything i say. Fortunately some lady gets on and takes that seat, relieving me from answering the same question more than 2 or 3 times. This guy is a “Muslim”, but likes to talk dirty, and even says he’ll “kill me” jokingly of course later. I’m not amused, and tell him that God will judge us for every word that comes out of our mouths. He makes new friends and leaves me alone the rest of the ride. The traffic jam out of Istanbul is huge, and we have the longest wait to toilet break i’ve ever had on a long-distance bus – 5 hours. Seeing the “Welcome to Asia” sign after we cross the Bosphorus Bridge makes things interesting for a while tho. I listen to Japanese Revelation on my camera to use the time wisely, but at this stage, i’m mostly droning/dozing/zoning.
The peepee tax in Turkey is the highest i’ve seen anywhere in the world – 1ytl which means around 65cents usd. Usually i wander around the 20 – 30 minutes that comes with every rest stop while everyone else is eating and smoking, and “learn the neighborhood”. I do pay the fee when nature so demands once, and see that there are no gold-plated faucets even at that price (no toilet paper either). Bus stop food is extremely expensive, and i’m glad i’ve stocked up on bread and cucumbers from Romania, and i still i have some 6-month old raisins and crackers from Japan 🙂
The Turkish immigration was so professional, i was hoping that Georgia would have made some progress too in the last 3 years, but it was not to be. We were herded like cows into a little area where the guard opened the gate to let whoever could push thru the hardest, then he shut it again. Of course this instigated several shouting matches. I was to learn that Georgians love to shout and get angry, making me think that the nasty arguing i saw on tv in America was much better, in that it at least was almost never seen out in public – ha! I mean this as no offense to my Georgian friends, but i found out that Georgians are generally among the rudest and crudest people on the face of the earth (that i’ve met anyway). They are very friendly when they are friends, but in general, and it can be seen by the way they drive their cars, they have no concept of “do to others what you want them to do to you”.
One other interesting thing that happened at immigration, is that the officer leading everyone into the “waiting pen” checked my passport, and then announced to everyone (i guess) to let me go to the front of the line because i’m American. Most of the people opened a path for me to go, but a few shouts were heard, and i was making my move to go to the side at the end of the line, so that ended that incident, but it made me feel good to see that someone at least respects what the US has done to help their country. While traveling, it was kind of spooky to be seeing place names that were in the war with Russia last year. We crossed one bridge that looked like a temporary affair. You could see a broken-down one next to it. My bus-mates told me that the US had brought in this temp bridge for them. In that same town (Gori), you could see rows of newly-built block houses. They are for the refugees who fled the fighting.
The lady next to me lets me call my friend, and he picks me up at Ortachala bus terminal in T’bilisi, and saves me from some tout who is mad at me because i’m not interested in buying a ticket to Trabzon. He takes me to his flat, marking an end to my 61-hour journey. Whew! Perhaps i dozed 5 or 6 hours during that time. Thank you Jesus for keeping me safe, and mostly sane. And please don’t let the rumours be true that Russia is planning to attack this country again next week!!!
About 80% of the whole reason i came is to see my friend. I’ve been very interested in coming again ever since talking with him on skype last year while in Malaysia, and learning that he is wanting that close walk with God like he had when i was here 3 years ago. Unfortunately, most of the time is not used to talk and pray and study about getting right with God again, and partly i wonder why i came here. We finally do get to have a deep conversation 2 or 3 times while here, and i pray the words i could speak were uplifting, pointing him to Jesus. He treated me well, being over-cautious that i find the SDA mission headquarters etc.
The first Sabbath here is at the Georgian-speaking church, where i see quite a few people i met here 3 years ago. Seems the main mission church has split into Russian-speaking and Georgian-speaking groups, which is better for all i guess. In the afternoon i go up to Kajori with my friend’s family. Kajori is a summer-resort place, only about 30 minutes up the big slope from T’bilisi, but probably about 600m higher, and about 5C cooler 🙂 The quiet and coolness finally puts my alpha waves back in sequence 🙂
My friend works on Sabbath now, and not because he “has” to either. He let me have worship on Saturday evening, and i tell the “Elephant” story i learned in Thailand, which everyone, especially the 4 kids, seem to enjoy. After the closing prayer, his wife and he both are a little red-teary-eyed, and he translates to me that she believes God sent me there to help their family get right with God again. I sure pray so. But as i will repeat many times while here, it takes one step at a time. Rather than wait for some “life-earthquake” to come into your life forcing you to make drastic changes for the better, it is best to make a daily step in the right direction, doing everything you know God wants you to do, one thing at a time. Each day that goes by knowing that you are disobeying God’s will, you are making it that much harder to return to God in the future.
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first artwork i ever did 🙂
intermediate lesson #5 ship on water