It's time to discuss buses in Turkey. We have been impressed with how comfortable they are, and they include food and drink served by men in bowties. They are the best way to get around inexpensively, if you have the time for long rides.
But don't count on knowing in advance when and how you will catch one. For our first trip, we tried to read the schedule posted on the wall. This was incomprehensible and wrong.
In Selcuk, we were given a handy card with timetables. We dutifully arrived early, and we were informed that the timetable is wrong and the bus wasn't for another 3 hours.
In Antalya, we asked at a few company offices and found one that left from the otogar at 9 am the next day, with a shuttle to the otogar (bus station) at 8 am. The next morning, we arrived for the shuttle only to be told that there is no morning bus and the only option leaves @ 7:30 pm, arriving early the next morning - not good!
We weren't surprised anymore by news like this, so we decided to take transit to the otogar. Once on the main street, a police officer told me there was no bus or dolmus to the otogar. He then led us for about five blocks to a bus stop. There, he proceeded to argue with two other people about which bus to put us on. After confusion amongst our ad hoc committee punctuated with pauses to ask us if we really wanted the otogar, we set off using the GPS instead of trying to sort out the arguing. After a bit of walking, a few buses pulled up at a light. Our police officer popped out of one, waving proudly. He found us a bus to the otogar.
We arrived just in time for the 9 am bus, which was real after all. This accomplishment was made possible by our ad hoc travel committee and our new belief in just going to the otogar and ignoring all posted, published and spoken schedules. It's the only way.
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