After an early start and a good breakfast with the most delicious honey, we headed to bus station and met up with most of the others from yesterday's trip. They were all headed off to interesting destinations and we boarded our service bus which took us to quite the worst otogar I have ever been too where after a few minutes the bus that was standing at the first bus station drove in. It was a rather smelly bus and caused Sue to drape a wet-wipe over her nose. We bumped out way to Igidir where we changed buses and bumped over another hour of roads until we arrived in Dogabayazit. Dogabayazit was the last town on the hippie trail before Iran and I remember my friend Jill saying it was a terrible dump so my hopes were not high. However, it was a clean tidy town with a lovely atmosphere. We later found out that the mayor is a Kurdish woman and the town showed the woman's touch! The little hotel was friendly and although the plumbing left a little to be desired I evenutally discovered how to stop the toilet was permanently running and how to turn on the tap without it coming off in my hand. We took a bus up to Ishak Pasa Palace which had been restored but still retained its charm.
Onwards we walked to Eski Bayazit which must have been magnificent in its time but apart from the mosque, it was little more than a ruin.
Whilst waiting for the bus back we got chatting to a Turkish girl who was studying to be an English teacher. She offered a place back to town on their mini bus so we piled on plus a couple of Italian girls we had met. Back in town Sue was chatted up by a man who worked for the Council and he took us into the Council offices and gave us books about the town.

Day 7 - Off to Van. The scenery was magnificent but we couldn't get our bearings on arrival and had to be led to our hotel, if you could call the dump that. Basic was an understatement but for 25 TL you don't expect the Ritz. The Manager was sleezy and tried his best to sell us a tour to Akdamar but we headed off on our own after many a false start to find the bus station. A lovely old man eventually led us there with his little granddaughter trotting along beside him. I tried to give her some money for sweets but Granddad said 'no'. We arrived at Akdamar in pouring rain so went to the restaurant opposite and had lake fish which were a sardine like fish with lots of bones but delicious. Back into Van and we wandered round town in the rain but did not get to like the place much. Fortunately Van was the last place that we did not like. There was a wedding going on opposite the hotel but I was so tired I did not even hear the call to prayer in the morning.