Antalya: The Inside of Otogar and Hotel Rooms

After leaving Olympos, we headed to the large town of Antalya to spend one day and then catch the overnight bus to Cappacocia (September 2-3).  Antalya is the gateway town to the Turkish Riveria where we had just come from.  We arrived and purchased our overnight bus tickets for the next evening since we were nearing the end of the Turkish Holiday and buses would be full.  After navigating the local bus to the Old City, we checked into our hotel room.  Old City is a carless area with narrow cobblestone streets and ruins around every corner.  Most of the houses were in the Ottoman style.  Our room was inside an apartment and we ended up having the whole place to ourselves including 2 bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen – luxury!

The afternoon was spent having a nice lunch on the water, eating ice cream in the park and heading back to the room.  I wasn’t feeling well which I thought was the leftover effects of a rough bus ride.  Dinner was included with our hotel room, so we enjoyed a nice 4 course dinner with homemade baklava capping off the meal.  It was an enjoyable evening, but I still wasn’t feeling good.  The rest of the night was long with both Mike and I getting very, very sick!  It was a good thing we had two bathrooms!

In the morning, we were supposed to check-out by 11 am, but I begged the owner to let us stay until 12:30.  Mike was sicker than I was, and at this point, we were still planning to take the 10pm overnight bus.  After checking out, we realized that Mike was still too sick to make that bus, so after trying 3 hotels, we finally found a room for the night with a private bathroom. 

I was still feeling okay, so I traveled the 30 minutes to the Otogar to try to exchange our bus tickets for that evening to the next day.  What an adventure that turned out to be!  It felt a little funny being on my own, but it was fine.  I did get flirted with, but I just told everyone I was married. 

I went directly to the bus company that we had our tickets and asked to be put on the next evening’s bus.  They said it was full, but how about the next day.  I said no and explained that we were delayed due to my husband being sick.  They continued to look at a bunch of papers, but said there was no room.  I asked if there was another bus company, and they said they were all full too! 

I was skeptical, so I took my ticket and started asking at each bus company’s booth.  After 3, I found tickets for the 9am bus in the morning for the same price.  So I bought them and returned to the original company to get my refund.  They were shocked and acted offended that I went to another company!  Then they took both of my tickets and went to the back office.  At this point, I was so frustrated and not feeling well that I started to get teary eyed and upset!  They came back and discussed the situation with 6 other guys asking me to explain it over and over again.  They finally gave me my tickets back.  I again asked for a refund.  After scratching their heads and staring at my ticket for about 10 more minutes, they finally gave me my money back!  What an ordeal!!

I made it back to the room where Mike was starting to feel better and I was starting to feel worse again.  The rest of the evening was spent resting. 

In the morning, we both felt better and caught our bus out of there!  We never did explore the city and we only took 1 picture.  The city seemed nice and the old town was neat from what we saw.  At least, we are both feeling better and now on our way again!

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4 Responses to Antalya: The Inside of Otogar and Hotel Rooms

  1. Jola says:

    Yikes… Definitely be VERY careful regarding what you eat in India… fellow travelers have gotten so sick there that they had to lay in bed for over a week! I hope that you guys are back to normal… big hugs from Berlin 🙂

  2. Trung says:

    Good luck on Kili.

    Try to sample the local beverages: Kili, Serengeti and everyone’s favorite….banana beer….

  3. Crystal says:

    I am glad you had two bathrooms… being sick is the worst! Just think that you are building up your immunity for future travels 🙂

  4. Kathy says:

    Thinking of you both. The worriers back home would like a one-line update, if you have time. 🙂

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