Day 5 - Cannakale

The next morning we take our luggage to the dolmis stop to catch a bus to Troy. We hope to continue south from there so we take our packs with us in the tiny mini-bus. When we arrive we stow our bags at a tourist restaurant (expensive food at the tourist spots!) so we can hike around Troy unencumbered.

Naturally there is a huge wooden horse there, but the real magic of Troy is imagining the city as it once was. And this can be difficult at times, as there isn't much left, and what is left is confusing (archaeologically speaking) as the city was razed and rebuilt 8 times. For us, not much remains but the citadel walls, a ramp and the foundations of houses.

We discover that it is not possible to catch a bus south from Troy, so we have to lug our packs to Cannakale again and catch a bus from there. This is only a 30 minute inconvenience, but it is the principle of the thing. The dolmis back is filled with a family of characters, grandfather, son (the driver) and grandsons are all on the little bus attempting to talk to us, and we're doing our best with whatever Turkish phrases we've remembered; hand gestures help, and we're all laughing at ourselves anyway.

A 4 hour bus ride later and we're in Bergama, or almost. We are unceremoniously dropped off on the side of the highway, and the bus attendant points at some buildings and mutters "Bergama". We laugh nervously between ourselves, two backpackers looking at the two buildings in the distance, wondering what we've got ourselves into. Thankfully (perhaps not be co-incidence) a taxi pulls in within a minute and offers to take us to the center of town - for a modest 20 Lira.