Day 11: The Ferry

this was probably the most uneventful day of the whole trip so far, and the mood was sad since no one was ready to leave turkey behind. we woke up early to start our drive to marmaris, the port where we were going to catch the ferry to rhodes. we all hugged sevim goodbye and watched as the hotel staff carried a sign around our bus reading, "kusadasi will miss you." we also all got a box of turkish delight from the travel agency that sevim works for.

i slept for the majority of our four hour bus ride. there's really not much else to do, especially when jenna is too tired to entertain me. :] we arrived in marmaris and had an hour for lunch before taking a short driving tour of the coast and then driving to the ferry. we waited for a while, got our tickets checked and bags scanned, and then waited some more. our bus driver didn't leave us until we had checked in, and when he saw we were okay, he drove away honking his horn and waving. at this point brooke and i gave our presentations. i think it went pretty well, but i guess we'll have to wait and see what my teachers thought.

we had all camped out in front of this giant ferry, but then we found out we were taking the one about a quarter of the size right next to it. none of us were thrilled, since we had heard it was a 4 hour ride. the inside of the ferry looked a lot like a very wide airplane. to our surprise and delight, it only took about an hour to get to rhodes. our bus took us straight to the hotel, where we found very tiny rooms with very tiny bathrooms and very tiny showers waiting for us. it's still a fabulous hotel, just in miniature.

a bunch of the girls went to dinner together - we all had gyros - before coming back to the hotel and going to bed earlier than usual.

since this is a short post, i wanted to share the story of our turkish bus driver. he was such an adorable old man. :]

when he was young, he had an arranged marriage after serving in the military. the girl's family was much wealthier than his, and they would only send a picture of the girl. she was very pretty, and the marriage was set. the first time they met, she was far away and they were walking toward each other. as they got closer, he saw that she was quite large, so he ran away. literally. so then he met another girl and fell in love with her, but her family would not let them get married because he was too poor. in turkey, especially back then, a boy was not allowed inside a girl's house unless they were engaged. he went to her house eleven times asking to be let in and for her hand, and every time he was refused. finally, he went to her house in the middle of a snow storm and waited until her grandma was outside. when her grandma saw him, she immediately invited him inside to get warm. they got married, and still love each other.