We had an early start to get a bus from the centre of the city to the Otogar, or bus station, which is on the outskirts of Erzurum. The hotel owner kindly put a pin on my phone of where to walk, so off we went.
Buses around every half an hour, but we timed it perfectly and only had a wait of around three minutes. It was cold out, which suited me perfectly, but the bus was warm. We were delighted to find that the bus tickets were easy to acquire, as they were contactless so we could pay by card when boarding. Some other locations perhaps need to catch up with this technology.
Safely at the bus station after a thirty minute bus journey. Some people try and walk to the bus station, but it would be a walk of getting on for two hours and it would be entirely unpleasant because of the lack of pavements in some places. And, at this time of year, it would be nearly impossible because of all of the snow.
The online reviews of this bus station are quite negative, with unclean and chargeable toilets, ants everywhere and insufficient seating. However, it all seemed comfortable and clean to me, with everything feeling logically laid out.
Jonathan pondering the various locations that could be visited in Turkey.
Looking towards the entrance.
Ours was the 11:30 service (the one without the platform number) which would take us to Hopa which is a town on the Black Sea coast in the north east of Turkey.
Jonathan wanted a morning snack and these were some of the options available.
And the hot options, although Jonathan went for a bread option.
We found a place to sit and then waited for our bus, but more of that in the next riveting instalment….