“When I get old I don’t want people thinking “What a sweet little old lady”… I want them saying oh crap! What’s she up to now?”
After a bit of research the four of us decided that we would stay at a small Eco farm for a few nights, and so, with a phone number and directions in hand, we caught our first bus of the day. After a five hour ride we arrived in Bodrum, and from there, we caught a small local mini bus which brought us farther inland. Once we arrived we called the number we had written down (from the Internet) as the owner had told us to call him when we arrived so that he could pick us up. I asked a shop owner to use his phone, but to my dismay, the person who picked up was not our guy but rather a confused old man wondering why I was telling him we had arrived. Since we obviously had the wrong number we decided to take one more mini bus and then walk since we had taken a photo of the directions on our iPads and figured that once we were close, we could find our way. The bus driver dropped us off where he thought we needed to go, and after asking for directions, we started to climb a hill. Three kilometers later we arrived to Bodrum Eco farm, thought to our dismay, instead of a guest house or a farm, we found a whole bunch of small houses for rent.
After a few minutes of poking around a young lady came out of her house, and asked us why in the world we were there. We quickly explained that we were looking for Bodrum Eco farm, and with a small chuckle, she explained our dilemma. Through Google maps we had somehow found our way to “Bodrum Eco farm houses” – some type of real-estate company – instead of “Bodrum Eco farm house” which was about ten kilometers away. She graciously asked us to hop into her car so she could drive us there, and so, after hours of busses and wandering around, we finally made it to our farm.
Thankfully the whole situation was more amusing than stressful since it was all so absurd, though Kevin and I realized that it’s moments like these which really make us miss our bikes. When we left our bikes in Istanbul we also left a lot of our freedom since we now rely on busses and directions to make it to the next destination, whereas when we cycle, we are free to stop, pee, eat, or sleep, whenever we darn well feel like it. I’m not complaining; we are both so happy my family came out to join us, and I can’t say that either of us are sad about sleeping in a bed or having easy access to a hot shower, but we are definitely happy that in the long run we have chosen to travel by bike in part because of the freedom it gives us. Ironically enough I actually find it much more stressful to travel by bus, to sleep in hostels, and to eat out at restaurants, than to do it all ourselves!
For a photo of the day and other updates follow me on facebook here, and for some awkwardly cropped photos from our journey, follow us on Instagram @awanderingphoto!