{"id":1197,"date":"2024-04-09T20:01:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T20:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2024-04-09T20:03:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T20:03:58","slug":"kidnapped-at-bun-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/04\/09\/kidnapped-at-bun-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Kidnapped at Bun Point"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Unexpected Guests<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Wandering around the small fishing harbour, I catch movement in the corner of my eye and turn to see the police arriving. I’m loving the boats which are all decorated differently and all with individual style and character. I return to the van to see what sort of trouble we’re in, our German neighbour<\/a> left earlier and we’re camped all alone now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Artsy on the beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The police have just stopped for a chat although conversation is limited because we can neither speak Turkish nor know anything at all about football. Google can help with the language but not with the football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Laid Plans<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\"20240124_114903\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Health Food<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Our plan for today is to visit the ancient city of Troy. It’s not far from here and we just need to cross the 1915 \u00c7anakkale bridge to get there. Passing through the adjacent village we notice a roadside van selling something. I’m hoping for bread as we need bread and T\u00fcrkiye needs judging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we slow the vendor motions to us excitedly. He’s holding up two fingers, “Two, two” he shouts. I’m not sure what to do because human interaction is not exactly one of my strong suits. Spreadsheets, yes but people, no, not so much. Erm, two of what exactly? “Two, two!” and he runs over with a a couple of paper bags. It’s not bread, it looks like flattened doughnuts. We know them as Torte Fritas in Spanish but I’m not sure what they are called in Turkish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I try to pay for them and he’s having none of it and now he’s gesturing for us to sit outside the local cafe and have a glass of \u00e7ay as well. Help. I’m out of my comfort zone and feeling slightly embarrassed now. It’s not the first time we’ve experienced the kindness of strangers<\/a>, but I think it’s the most impactful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abandoning<\/s> Parking the van in the village square, we settle ourselves down in some ramshackle chairs on a weatherworn veranda. An aproned man appears with two glasses of \u00e7ay and again I try to pay for them. He too is having none of it. Help. We discuss the situation while eating our snacks and sipping our tea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’ll know, of course, that we’ve been parked up in the harbour for the last couple of nights. This is a small village and everyone chats. The police check will have suppressed the wilder rumours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\"IMG_6120\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Will they let us go?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
A Different Culture and a Friendly Welcome<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

There are no shops here other than the doughnut van and the cafe and we’ve contributed nothing to the local economy. The opposite really as we’ve just taken since we filled up our water tanks at the harbour. The only thing we did was pick up a lot of litter and put it in the bins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet here we are being welcomed as guests of honour. It’s really very humbling and I can’t help thinking how this situation would be very unlikely to play out at home. We feel the need to reciprocate and to give something back. We have some bracelets that Rosana makes and sells online when we’re at home. Rosana picks out a couple suitable for a young girl and gives them to the vendor’s granddaughter. She’s as happy as can be and her smile beams from ear to ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here Today, Troy Tomorrow<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

What of Troy? We’d left it late anyway, so after this wonderful and unexpected diversion we decide to delay it until tomorrow. It stood for thousands of years and its ruins will stand for another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\"IMG_2562\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
1915 \u00c7anakkale Bridge in all its glory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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We cross the impressive 1915 \u00c7anakkale bridge and bimble along some dirt tracks trying to find an ancient burial mound. We can see it but we just can’t get to it. Eventually giving up we find ourselves a nice park up in amongst some some crumbling military fortifications to call home for the night. A passing shepherd gives us a friendly wave as he herds his sheep and goats towards their home for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an altogether unexpected day we set up camp before watching the sun set over the Aegean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

As first impressions go, T\u00fcrkiye has performed spectacularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flickr Albums: Ipsala<\/a> | Kocacesme<\/a> | Sigeion<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In which we fail to make it out of a village.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[153,9],"tags":[10,11,13,20,21,154,155,32],"class_list":["post-1197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkiye","category-van-travel","tag-camper","tag-campervan","tag-hiace","tag-toyota","tag-travel","tag-turkey","tag-turkiye","tag-vanlife"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_6128-scaled.jpeg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}