For Richer or Poorer, 'til Customs Officials Do Us Separate

Uh huh, I think you all can guess by that title how things went for our trip to Chios, Greece, to renew our visas to Turkey. It has taken almost a week for the bitterness to dissipate enough for me to blog about this little "adventure." Let me tell you the whole saga.

Chris and I planned to go to Chios, which is just off the coast of Turkey, on Saturday. We had planned to go with friends, but because of weather (it was supposed to rain), the friends decided they were going to postpone their trip. We, of course, HAD to go. So we woke up early to rain, and got ready. We went down, took a city bus to the bus station where we were planning to get a bus to Çeşme, then take the ferry to Chios. We weren't sure if the ferry left at 10 or 10:30, so we planned to get there by 9:30 to make the ferry if it left at 10:00. We got off the city bus at the bus station, and went to the bus headed to Çeşme and got on. An employee got on after us and asked us for our tickets. Well, we'd never needed any tickets for the 10 other times we went to Çeşme, so we didn't have any. He pointed out the ticket booth and told us we needed them. As we were talking with the guy in the ticket booth, the bus, full now, drove off. The man told us the next bus would leave in 20 min. Oh, and we DIDN'T need tickets for that one. At this point, we had left early enough that we still had enough time that we could wait.

The next bus pulled up and we got on. It was a smaller bus than usual (usually it's the nice motor coaches, this was a short bus and I will personally slap anyone who makes comments! :D ) but we figured if it went to Çeşme, it was fine. We got on, and it left on time for the hour trip to Çeşme. Except that part of the way there, it took the scenic detour. We went through a little village, randomly picked up some people, and continued to take the country roads (although calling them roads is being rather kind) until we got to Çeşme. And did I mention our driver was like the slowest driver EVER?! So, and HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES later, we finally get to Çeşme. Now it is well after 10, so we're hoping the ferry leaves at 10:30, and even then we'll have to hurry. We walk/run the quarter mile to the port, where we are told that the ferry left at 10 and there is not enough one until 6, which doesn't come back until the next morning. Well, we have no clothes, nothing for staying overnight, so we decide to take the Tuesday ferry. So now we just need to turn around and go back to Izmir.

We realized about then that we had no idea where the bus depot was. Our bus had just dropped us off at an intersection, not a bus stop. So bless Chris for knowing a bit of Turkish, we stopped a man on the sidewalk and asked. He was a sweetheart, he walked us the whole mile and a half to the nearest bus station, THEN bought us tea and talked with us while we waited. That was the good part of the day. We caught the bus back to Izmir, and decided to just take a taxi home and forego the city buses. We grabbed a cab, went home, and decided to go to sleep and pretend this day hadn't happened. Ah, if only it was that easy.

The next day (Sunday) we needed some food for breakfast, so Chris offered to go and get some. Five minutes later he came into the bedroom and said, "Barb, have you seen my wallet?" Oh yes, you guessed it, the wallet was lost, along with 400TL (about $300), his bank card, and drivers' license. And because it was Sunday, we could only call the 1-800 number, where we were told they had no record of his card, so we would have to call LMCU on Monday. Fabulous.

Monday we called and canceled the card, and no charges had been made so far. Whew!

Tuesday we got up an hour earlier than Saturday-we were NOT missing this ferry! Once again, we got on the city bus, then the Çeşme bus, and then to the port. Ah HAH, the ferry was still there! Now we just have to get through customs! We waited in line for about 20 min before it was our turn. The boat will leave in 10 min. The official takes one look at our passports, and starts fiddling with his computer, after which he tells us that we are one day over and will have to pay a fine. 163TL per person per day. So 326 TL total, due NOW, in CASH, and of course there's not an ATM. Well, we don't have that much money. So they get annoyed, and find a ferry employee, who will take us to an ATM back in town where we can get the cash out. Chris has to stay with the customs people while I go get the cash. This man, bless him, drives like mad, honking his horn to get us through, until we screech up to an ATM, I get out money, and then we FLY back. We now have about, oh, 2 minutes until 10:00. The customs official insists on writing out 2 separate receipts, and you'd think it was a penmanship quiz with as carefully (read here: SLOWLY) he wrote out these receipts. We RAN to the ferry, hopped on, and then spent the first 15 min trying to calm down. This trip, between the cost of the ferry (INSANE!!!), the lost wallet, the trips back and forth from Çeşme to Izmir, the taxi, and now the fine, we had lost a whole month's rent for our apartment. Ouch. At least we weren't deported.

Our time in Chios actually wasn't that bad. We had a pizza with bacon and ham on it, did some wandering around, and, after checking with the tourism center, we purchased 4.5 lbs of bacon and 3 lbs of cheese to bring back. We had no trouble getting on the return ferry, and were actually in pretty good moods. This quickly changed when we began a conversation with some other people who had gone to renew their visas, who told us that bacon was forbidden in Turkey and we couldn't bring it in with us. We would have it confiscated and possibly even have to pay a fine. You've got to be kidding me. Well, I WASN'T giving up my bacon, so we decided we were going to smuggle it. In my purse. All 4.5 lbs of it. With umbrellas on top to hide it. And people wonder why I carry such a big purse? Here's why :D

Well, we got past the customs without any untoward looks, and had bacon and eggs when we got home.




And GOOD NEWS! Wednesday, as Chris and I were leaving our apartment to have tea with our friends down the street, we were stopped outside our apartment building by a man who started talking about a taxi. We were like, "No, thank you, we don't need a taxi." Then he pulled out Chris' wallet!!!!! Turns out he had been sick the previous weekend and someone else drove his taxi. When he came back to work he found Chris' wallet, tracked down the driver to get our address, and was coming to return it, money intact!!! Amazing even more because 400TL is a LOT for a taxi driver, and all he had to do was pocket it and pitch the wallet and no one would have been the wiser. So yes, we have Chris' wallet, our money, and our faith in people's goodness restored. Turkey IS the land of extremes.