Visa Run to Rhodes
Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 5 Oct 2009 19:16
Sunday is a nice quiet day around the boatyard as of course none of the companies are working. It seems most of the people laying up boats or living on their boats here also take the day off.
We opted to press on with our jobs, but did not exactly overdo things. We packed up early as well as we had been invited to Terry's 50th birthday party on board his Najad yacht. Met quite a few new people here as well as many old friends and probably outstayed our welcome as usual. I have to confess that I drank rather more than usual and was a little the worse for wear!
Monday dawned bright sunny and far too early. We were picked up by a pre-booked taxi at 7.00am and taken to the ferry port to catch the daily 'fast catamaran' ferry to Rhodes (arriving far too early as Sarah continued to point out...). This is a tedious administrative exercise which is all about renewing our visas. Turkish visitor visas last exactly 90 days and you must leave the country before it expires. You can then return to the country and purchase a new visa (£10 sterling, €15 Euro) and the clock starts again. So we had a day as proper tourists back in Greece. The first real problem arose as we went through passport control whilst trying to board the ferry to leave Turkey. They obviously have to stamp your visa to show you leaving, but when we had last entered the country back in July, for some reason the passport officer had put his stamp on the wrong page in Sarah's passport. This was all too much for the chap here and he spent an age just staring at the problem. Finally he carefully peeled the visa off the wrong page and carefully put it on the correct page and then stamped it. The 200 Germans standing behind us in the long queue to the only booth were very patient.
The day actually turned out well as we found an excellent chandler who had a number of the items we have been scouring Marmaris for and Sarah managed a few essential items as well as several large pots of yoghurt. The Old City is a fantastic place and if you ignore the wall to wall grockle shops selling the same old tat, you can wander the little alleyways and backstreets to your heart's content. It is a very extensive walled city and World Heritage site, overlooking the old grand harbour and sits beside the modern city very well. The modern area provided Sarah with 2 hours of enjoyable retail therapy, describing it as having 'real shops'.
Wind had got up during the day and so having been warned by the old hands at the marina that these ferries roll in a very uncomfortable way, we each took a sea-sick tablet as a precaution and sat right in the middle of the ferry. In the event the roll was interesting but not too dramatic and everyone seemed to survive OK.