Driving in Turkey

In the dining car of the sleeper train
First driving experience in Turkey

Last night we took the overnight train from Istanbul to Konya, a largish city about 200 km west of Cappadocia, where we are now (photos and more info in next post). The train apparently broke down in the middle of the night (we were blissfully unaware as we slept through it on our reasonably comfortable beds) and hence arrived 3 hours late.

We went straight to the rental car place and after at least 30 minutes of paperwork with someone who spoke no English we were away in our Renault Symbol - a much nicer car with a much roomier boot than the Hyundai Getz we had ordered. I drove because Graeme's navigation is much better than mine. Before I got in the car I laid down some hard and fast rules for Graeme:
1. no matter what I do he mustn't get impatient or cross
2. he mustn't point left and say "turn right"
3. he mustn't point right and say turn left"

So off we went with rain and hail pouring down on us just as we started. I haven't driven on the right side of the road (except by mistake in the Grampians a few weeks ago) since Canada 6 years ago, and probably 20 years before that. Apart from driving on the right hand side I also had to change gears with my right hand, work out where all the controls were (especially windscreen wipers), and drive through giant puddles of water. When we got to the Mevlani museum, with G's great navigation, we had to drive through water 50 cm deep while looking for a parking spot. Fortunately the rain eased while we were in the museum and the signage out of Konya was quite good, so we made it to Cappadocia OK. It looks like we are the only ones obeying the 90 kph speed limit as we were constantly overtaken, often on double lines!