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The trip to the Greek border got me nothing except more bad feeling against Turkish customs officials. Left here at 8:30, full of energy and fun, eager for the trip to get rid of my car. Got back at 8:30 in the evening, dead tired and a bit ticked off. Took a good long time to get out to Ipsala, the Greek crossing, as it always does, and they refused to take the car because there was no room, "yer yok burada". Ertuğrul Bey had had a couple of letters of petition typed up, on the advice of the of the customs office at Ankara, but so far it wasn't working. The director at Ipsala said to go to Edirne, that they would have room there.
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Note from 2008
Here's the problem. In the image to the left, look at the entry at the top of the left page, page 14. Here the customs people wrote into my passport a note that I was the owner of a car on which import tax was forgiven. If I left the country, the car had to be accounted for in some way. Unless I took it with me. The car was such a wreck no one wanted it. So I had to wiggle it off my passport. Somehow. |
So back out on the road, turn north to Edirne, driving through the usual insane traffic plus all the military stuff moving around that you find near that border, to the little Greek crossing at Edirne, which turned out to be Pazarkule, not Kapıkule, which was what I wanted. Back into Edirne and about 15 km. beyond to Kapıkule, which is the Bulgarian crossing, where the big highway from central Europe comes through.
The guy in charge at Kapıkule refused absolutely to take my car, was very disagreeable about it, and wanted me to take it through into Bulgaria and on to America. I was really pretty tired at that point, and didn't want to have to drive the car back to Istanbul, but that's what I had to do. Pain in the ass.
Collected some food in the village before I got to my apartment. They were gearing up for an Adalet Partisi (Demirel) rally in the meydan in front of the Greek church when I went down. Flags strung all over, PA with choral and band martial music, and a little crowd gathering. The grocer seemed either very upset about the rally, or nervous about having me around at that moment. Tom Davis came down to my apartment as soon as I got in, so I went up and had coffee after I'd fixed myself a sandwich. They had a few comforting words after a long day. 12-hour drive.
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Was out to dinner quite late the night before, after the graduation ceremony, with Dan Golden and his parents. Had expected to find Teki and Kathy in my apartment when I got back, but they'd gone out for dinner and not returned.
Yesterday I finally managed, with the help of Namuk from our Business Office, to get rid of my old VW. Ertuğrul Bey decided after the debacle of the drive to Greece, to "do it the correct way". !! Yesterday morning he said that Namuk and I should go down to the Gümrük that afternoon, so after lunch I brought my car 'round with all my papers, and we took off together, petitions and hats in hand.
Began by getting more or less booted out of the office of the Customs Director for Istanbul. In all of my various intricate encounters with the Karaköy Gümrük, I'd never been in to see his honor, and of course I had to leave more or less on my ear. He refused to help us, so Namuk and I were left to plug it out with the underlings.
Down to the Yolcu Salonu and 'round and 'round with the crowd there. We all know each other fairly well by now. They had me bring the car 'round and Neçdet Bey complained about the three hubcaps and fragments of chrome stripping which are all missing. Then Namuk and I took off in a rush, paperwork approved thus far, to the lot at Hasköy, down on the Golden Horn past the naval base at Kasimpaşa. We know each other there too, since I'd refused to give them a 50 TL bribe when I left the car there in February. And that's where I left the car. Of course I actually felt a little guilty, walking away and abandoning it after it had carried Dan Golden and I up and down the Aegean coast and over the Taurus Mts. a few times. Turned the keys over, signed my name and Namuk announced "araba gitti". But of course we weren't finished, and left in an even greater hurry, to get back to the Yolcu Salonu and get signed off on my passport and carnet.
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Short cut in a taxi through streets by the Galata Tower, and with some masterful cajoling and palm greasing by Namuk, at 5:30 the job was finished. I'm free! That car was the major hang-up, I think. The rest of getting out of here should be fairly easy.
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Note from 2008
Here you see the fix to my problem. See the note dated 1/6/977. Customs notes that I've left the car at Karaköy. The car is now off my passport. |
Esad Bey the campus doc has pronounced me more or less healthy and fit for travel. Went downtown Tuesday AM to pick up my test results from the Bristol and try to use a cashier's check to buy some traveler's checks. The Turk Ekspres (Amexco in disguise) office at the Inter-Continental refused to accept my cashier's check. Should have known better I guess. The manager even implied I was attempting to defraud him. As far as the results of my tests, Esad said I'd had a viral infection of some kind, apparently, but was healthy now, and not to worry too much.
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