Blue Skies

The cold weather is starting to creep into our Bodrum abode, so our departure is not a day too soon. After a few days of rain we were thankful for blue skies and the warmth of the sun to accompany us on the first leg of our trip to walk down Our Eiger to catch the Bodrum dolmus. It’s bad enough walking down our steep hill without a backpack on your back, so if we’d had to add a slippery surface to the mix they would have been casualties.

Thanks to a helpful local builder we were able to capture the starting point of our trip without having to resort to a selfie.

The dolmus was packed except for an empty back seat that was barricaded by a pile of luggage topped off with a tea urn.

Not to be deterred, we clambered over to claim the seat for our hour-long journey to Bodrum.

AtlasGlobal to Istanbul

I thought we’d be spoilt for choice for airport service buses but the first one didn’t leave until we should have been at the airport. Luckily we were flying AtlasGlobal and they have a free bus that leaves two hours before your departure from Bodrum (and 3 hours before your departure from Turgutreis), so we killed 90 minutes by sitting at the bus stop cafe for a breakfast of champions; toasted cheese and tomato sandwich and chips.

It’s only about a 45 minute bus ride to Milas-Bodrum Airport, and the domestic terminal had an aura of calm as there’s less than one flight an hour. It’s such a welcome change to see this terminal organized and chilled. On our first few trips to Turkey this domestic terminal was actually the domestic and international terminal and it was complete chaos with multiple flights leaving around the same time in the early hours of the morning. As you swarmed out of the doors to board you’re flight there was always a niggle in the back of your mind that you might be heading for a completely different destination.

Our AtlasGlobal flight to Istanbul was as uneventful as the weather, and on arrival in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport we headed for a 24-stop and one change metro ride into Instanbul’s old town area of Sultanahmet.