18 June, 2009. Day 0

Got up very early to give myself time to put the stuff together for the trip. As it is my habit, everything is left for the last minute. Nonetheless, I actually managed to prepare everything, visit the neighbors, take the subway and make it in time. Could not have asked for more, it was a luxury ride. There were only four passengers and a crew of two in the entire bus. One of the passengers was Aykhan who turned out to be a very friendly and pleasant fellow wıth lots of stories to tell. I chatted wıth him during the entire trip. He was a student of environmental studies and had spent four months in Greece as an exchange student, mostly in Zakynthos. I learned a lot of practical stuff from him about Turkey, some of which I actually used. Chatting and learning from Aykan helped shorten the fourteen hour drive. The bus left Athens at 12:30 and we arrived at Kesan at 1:30 in the morning. I got off on the highway outside Kesan, right in front of hotel Linda. What a coincidence! It was the same hotel where I spent the first night in Turkey in last year's bike trip with the mosqueteers. It was overpriced but just like last year I had no choice.

For the benefit of the fellow mosqueteers I posted the hotel's photo.

Aykhan, if you read this, be aware that I lost your phone number.