Sometimes it’s faster to walk

When we arrived, I didn’t know the geography of the city very well. And since I was overwhelmed with all of the other things associated with the move, Scott would just advise me which bus to get on and where to get off.

One more point of interest: I hate riding the bus! Stop, go, swerve, speed up, slam on the breaks, and repeat just doesn’t sit well with my easily motion-sickened self. I’ve been told that this feeling will improve with time, and surely it has, but I still try to avoid the bus whenever I can.

Imagine my delight when Scott informed me I could actually walk to my language helper’s house. It’s about 5 miles roundtrip, uphill both ways, but it is quite a lovely walk, with a nice shortcut through a park. (It really is uphill both ways. I actually have to walk up and over a big hill to get there and I use the same route to get back home.)

Now it begs the question, why didn’t I know I could walk this distance? Well, the bus ride and subsequent walk to her house from the bus stop takes about 35 minutes. I didn’t know that as the crow flies, this distance was only about 2 miles. (Unfortunately, I can’t take the same path as the crow. There happens to be a big hill and large highway that need to be taken into consideration.) So, if I take into account the time that I wait for the bus, it is probably faster for me to walk than to take the bus.

Since walking over the big hill isn’t really done by a lot of Turks, in the 2 ½-mile one-way trip, I’ll often have 10-15 taxis, driving in the opposite direction, honk at me for business, as if I (a foreigner) don’t actually know how to flag a cab!