After arriving in Trabzon we were told that the next ferry would sail on Saturday the 13th August which would get us into Russia two days after we had planned. Not only this but it would set us back $740 (£450)!
We had not budgeted for this in either the time or money, so decided to find somewhere to camp and mull it over. Remembering a camp site that we had passed a few kilometres previously we drove back along the coast and pitched our tent for a handsome 20 Turkish Lira per day (about £7.00).
We sat by the sea, made some pasta, and were just discussing our options when one of our Turkish neighbours very kindly brought us a tray of tea and baklava. Not really having anything substantial we could offer in return, we brewed a good old cup of Earl Grey and took this back over. Neither party could converse more efficiently than a few obvious hand gestures but we were certain they invited us to join them, so we pulled up some chairs. With the help of their daughter who spoke a handful of English words and good old fashioned charades we learnt that they were camping here for 7 days during Ramazan but lived in Trabzon. Also the Father owned a Restaurant in Trazbon serving a healthy blend of Tea and live music. Before I knew it, we had been invited to join them at the restaurant and a short trip back into Trazbon later we were seated at what I imagine was the 'owners' table and supplied with plenty of beverages (non-alcoholic being Ramazan). The night then led on to a Turkish game which unfortunately I have forgotten the name of now, but it involved several square counters with different numbers and colours on, and four counters holders, a bit like scrabble. Then after a lot of pointing, miming, and getting it wrong, we deduced that the aim of the game, similar to Rummy, was to obtain groups of numbers either by having a run of numbers in the same colour, or a set of the same number in different colours. We played until about 3am at which point we all declared it time for bed.
Waking up again on a deflated matress yesterday made patchwork our priority. We took the air bed down to the sea, pumped it up, laid it across some sun loungers and carefully doused it with water hoping that the hole would make itself obvious but not really expecting it to be fruitful. Lo and behold, the first dribble made the little blighter frothingly obvious and with a large glob of glue and some careful placement of a patch, it was mended. Touch wood it seems to have held up so far!
Net up, Ferry tickets. After the kind hospitality of our Turkish neighbours the day before yesterday, we thought we would pay them a visit, hoping perhaps that they might be able to advise if we would be able to get a better price elsewhere.
We arrived mid afternoon, and again did not end up leaving until late into the evening! The language barrier or fortified wall as it now appeared to be, having categorised everything we wanted to say into either pointing down or 'over there' and not getting very far, led us to resort to typing short phrases into Google translate, generally finding that the translation led to some incomprehensible broken English, but each phrase was slightly closer to the truth with each try.
After a few hours, our intentions now well understood, Hayrettin, the Patron of the Restaurant somehow managed to barter with the Ferry company, I believe by arguing that our Nissan was barely taking up more space than a rubber dingy and knocked $100 dollars off of the price.
We went back to the ticket office yesterday to shake hands, smile and nod, but for some reason we were not able to purchase the tickets there and then. We should be going back today to pay (I think?) and the Ferry leaves at 16:00 Saturday. This should get us into Russia at 04:00 Sunday Morning so we will have to do a bit of caffeine fuelled late night driving to catch up.
Unfortunately we have not come across any other ralliers in Trabzon, and cannot find anyone on the website headed this way, but we are still determined to convoy before the next week is out!
Off for a spot of swimming now. Cheerio!
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