We live like on a volcano...
In the last ski season, while looking through the options for recreation, we stumbled upon a new direction for us - Turkey. Not Palandoken, and not Uludag, but some unknown Erciyes. Once we considered Turkey, but we did not consider it enough. There was something we didn't like. I only remember that apart from the all-inclusive, we did not see any other advantages and chose a different direction. The tours were obscenely cheap, but Verkin's husband, after watching a video about the resort, completely rejected the tracks, and we chose the CP last year. And two companies familiar to us, but completely unfamiliar with each other, still went to Erciyes and were wildly delighted.
In the same season, there seemed to be no choice. Turkey is now our everything! And even without tests. Last year's companies again zasobiralis there. They began to call us. But it was only October, I still only intended to buy a tour to Egypt, so I persistently brushed aside offers to buy a ski in Belarus. What am I, Rockefeller, or what? I would like to cross over to Egypt. And this year, booking something in advance is more expensive for yourself. We live like on a volcano. We still have to wait until February. By the way, this very Erciyes, where the ski resort was built, was once a volcano. However, there are no former volcanoes. Someday he will wake up again. God forbid!
In short, the guys, including Verka's husband, did buy tours to Turkey, and we - to Egypt. How it all went, many of you read.
But then I returned from Egypt, and then I was already closely engaged in choosing a tour to Turkey. In fact, I didn’t really want to fly in a package. Vadik and I already had 2 weeks of vacation, and the tours were only seven days long. And what to do with another week? I began to make some crazy plans for an independent trip. Fly from Zaporozhye to Kayseri, go skiing for a week, and from there take a plane to Antalya. Domestic Turkish flights cost some ridiculous 700 hryvnia. Yes, and Zaporozhye-Kayseri, too, a thousand and a half in total. Only, here, a transfer in Istanbul... There is still nothing, but back - the night will have to cuckoo there. She twisted, stirred, and, spitting, began to watch package tours.
Last year, both companies bought hotels in the nearby city of Kayseri. Transfer to the ski area is included in the price. Just like the ski pass. But this year, unfortunately, the lafa is over. Ski passes were already a separate item. And the transfer too. One company last year lived in a shabby, smoky three-ruble house, and this year decided to improve their living conditions by booking a posh Wyndham five. And the second, like last year, chose their favorite "Holiday Inn". And if the first company had to pay extra for the transfer, then the second one was also promised free delivery of bodies to the mountain. True, they immediately took the entire cost of the tour from them. What is this divorce? Usually they take 20-30 percent of the cost, and the rest is paid directly a couple of weeks before departure. Suspicious! It smacks of scammers.
I rummaged through the Internet in search of at least some information about the resort. Tears. Almost nothing. In order not to be a hostage of the transfer, I began to consider hotels on the mountain. They are there - one or two and miscalculated. And only one attracted me to the price. On the entire Internet there was only one review about this hotel, and that one was negative. But the price is painfully attractive - only 22 thousand. UAH with pennies. Holiday, for example, we were offered for about 30. And even with a transfer. The travel agent who sold tours to our friends assured me that she could negotiate, and we would also be included in the group of lucky ones. But I was not seduced and bought a tour from my trusted girl. To a hotel on the mountain. It was called Erciyes Hill. My travel agent grimaced as she booked it. He was without stars. Well, I don’t grab stars from the sky either. The very thing you need! In addition to the included insurance, I also bought from financial risks (from non-departure) and sports. We know swimming! Contributed 5 thousand. hryvnia deposit and fixing a ridiculous price of 22 thousand, I calmed down. But in vain...
Just before the New Year, Turkey also decided to introduce mandatory testing of all those entering its territory. Well, okay! Our Jewish happiness in all its glory! Everyone who is not lazy has already managed to go without tests, and we, as usual, are lucky, like drowned people. Moreover, upon arrival, you will have to sit out for two weeks. Or take the test again. Well, that's it. We still have a week of vacation, let them observe. We'll see.
Meanwhile, events began to develop very quickly. The good news is that the observation or testing was canceled upon return. Exhale!
In the process, it turned out that another company of acquaintances was flying from Mariupol on our dates. They already flew there in mid-December. Only now there was no snow there at all. Only one track worked. However, they decided to try their luck again. What to do? There is nowhere else to ride anyway!
They also chose a mountain hotel, but not ours, but more expensive. I called TA to check if everything is fine with the hotel. Checked... The finished MNU, on the wings of which we were supposed to fly from TO "Coral Travel", it turns out, canceled flights from Zaporozhye! Like the flight is very underloaded! Damn, half of Mariupol is flying, and their flight is underloaded! Brad!
Friends who flew last year have already moved to Kyiv for permanent residence and were going to fly, of course, from there. But this cup did not pass them by either. In addition to canceling flights from Zaporozhye, UIA also canceled some flights from Kyiv. Friends also postponed the flight for a couple of days, combining with another. Oh, we can not avoid overbooking! We should check in early for the flight!
We were offered a choice of departure from Kyiv or Kharkov, but a couple of days later. Well, kapets! How to get there? I began to look again how to fly on my own. Even developed a route. Pegasus from Zaporozhye continues to fly. This is not UIA! 6 days to ride, and then wave to Cappadocia for 3 nights. Painfully, the opportunity to spend the night in a cave sunk into my heart. Andrew annoyed. And rummage through the valleys and hills. Everything would be fine, but you will have to fly without skis - this is the time. Our "cheap" hotel on Booking cost some absolutely insane money - almost a piece of greenery for 6 nights and without meals. And he did not offer other mountain hotels at all. Only in Kayseri. Okay, I found a good hotel in the city at an affordable price. It seems that they even promised a free transfer to the mountain. In Cappadocia, hotels generally cost a ridiculous 20 bucks a night for breakfast. I've already bought almost everything. But I didn't buy it. The hand itself pulled away from the keyboard.
I called the guys from Verka's husband's company. They are neither a dream nor a spirit. Their travel agent doesn't catch mice. She began to rub them that everything is fine, you just need to wait a couple of days, and everything will work out. And the second company has already been two days, as everyone knew. And we have already decided to fly from Kyiv. For this purpose, we hired a bus to Boryspil, since the departure is early in the morning, and traveling by train is not an option. There were still seats on the bus, and we immediately fell on their tail. I called TA and said that they would quickly rebook us to Kyiv. A tour to our hotel has already cost, for a minute, 36 thousand. But we kept our ridiculous price of 22000.
The second company, already in a reduced composition, was rebooked by their travel agent to Kharkov. I got them a free transfer… from Zaporozhye to Kharkiv!
I was pretty nervous. The people of Kiev flew away on the day when I had to pay the remaining 80% of the amount. I asked them to write to me that they arrived safely and settled them.
Written. With a delay of one hour (there was a terrible snowfall in Kyiv), the plane took off. They settled in the hotel immediately, without waiting for the check-in at 14.00. It's hot in Kayseri, +18, but there seems to be snow on the mountain.
I took the denyushka to TA. By the way, the dollar exchange rate at that time unexpectedly fell sharply, and I paid even less than expected. Incredible! Never in my life have I been so happy! It has always been exactly the opposite! Suspicious.
And another 2 weeks to wait!...
I bombarded my friends with questions about literally everything. This year wasn't as fun as last year. There was much less snow. It was warm and sunny for a couple of days, but then an unchildlike breeze blew, and some of the lifts were closed. There are a lot of rocks and ice on the slopes. And a couple of days before their departure, it snowed! Here is a present. For us.
I dragged out with the backstory. I just want you to imagine the whole picture.
So, actually, the trip.
We left Mariupol at 14.00. A few hours earlier, I started checking in for the flight. Having reached the choice of seats on the plane, I went crazy! It turns out that window seats cost 4 euros. And places where you can stretch your legs - 12 euros! A trifle, like, but unpleasant! Ah yes MAU, ah yes well done! It remains to make paid toilets on the plane!
I had to buy aisle seats. Well, okay! What is there to fly? 2 hours 20 minutes total.
The snowfalls in central Ukraine had already ended for a week, so the roads were already clear. We're lucky, you might say. Well, at least in something!
While it was daytime, the people on the bus, in the amount of 10 people, mostly 60+/-, frolicked with might and main. Ate-drank-drank-ate. It got dark. Somehow kemarili. Even I managed to do it a little. But just a little. At about 2 am we were in Boryspil. Departure was at 5.50, but check-in had already begun. Having shaken off the equipment and chumadans, they sat down and lay down on the seats. Three more people joined our company - a married couple of acquaintances from Kiev and another Mariupol resident, Vadik's classmate at Sasha's institute. He arrived the day before by train and spent the night with relatives. He did not know that we were also flying.
The flight went well. Already before boarding, they began to distribute questionnaires to fill out. I was about to start filling out when Sasha, who was sitting in front, noticed that the questionnaire was for Egypt. The aunts took everything back. They had no other profiles.
Arrived on time. But they sat on the plane for a long time, waiting for the questionnaires and going through the procedure for balancing the window-dressing vessel. What is this news? Why balance it? So that drunken tourists, rushing to the exit, do not throw the plane over? This is the first time this has happened to me!
Out of boredom, I watched a hot Turkish guy unloading our trunks alone.
Finally, the plane was given a wheel alignment and began to let out those who had questionnaires. They filled them at home - their travel agents did their best. Finally, they brought us the coveted leaves. We filled them in, filled them out, but no one even looked at them. Selected at the entrance, and that's it! And nobody was interested in our tests. Maybe those who should be interested in them have not yet woken up? It was only 9 ours and 10 local time.
The skis arrived along with the rest of the luggage along the belt.
I went to look for an exchanger. And no! They said that there are only ATMs here. Having loaded the junk into our bus, Vadik and I went to look for them. Found. If you leave the airport, you need to cross the road and go a little to the right. There were a whole bunch of them, from different banks. There was no time to understand. They put a card in the first one that came across. He began to tell that he would remove the commission, etc. , etc. But come on already! Of the proposed amounts, they chose the maximum possible - 250 lire. We ran to the bus. From our company, only Vadik's classmate Sasha was on the bus. It turns out that he also bought a tour to our hotel. Or rather, someone bought it for him. He had no idea what hotel he was going to live in until he looked at the voucher, at my request. The rest of the gang left on another bus.
Sasha, having learned that we had withdrawn Turkish money, also desired it. But something didn’t work out for him, and he returned without a salty slurp. The hotel guide skeptically noted that withdrawing money from an ATM is unprofitable. It is better to exchange currency with him. At a very favorable rate. At the official rate of 6.90 to the dollar, he offered 6.70. To be honest, I don't know which is worse. Didn't bother to count. But what we withdrew from an ATM cost us an extortionate UAH 4.50. for the lyre. It is most advantageous to pay by card, but not everywhere they take it. And we took a little currency - a hundred dollars and a hundred euros. We needed them for completely different purposes, but more on that later.
The airport is located practically within the city. Kayseri is located at an altitude of about 1000 meters, and our hotel is above 2000. They say it is very useful to live for a while at such an altitude. I don't doubt it at all!
Leaving the city, the bus tried to crawl uphill. But it wasn't there! The clutch appears to have snapped. We got off the bus. The weather is chicdos! Warm, sunny! While waiting for another bus, we got to know each other. In addition to us and Sasha, two more Kiev girls were going to the hotel. And a married couple from Zaporozhye, about our age.
The hotel guide Suleiman said that he would hold a meeting without leaving the ticket office while the rooms were prepared for us. And it is better to resolve all issues immediately. And then he won't come back. So everyone quickly exchanged bucks from him, bought an excursion to Cappadocia and ski passes!
And how much is the tour? And only 109 bucks is a flight on a balloon with a transfer! Eh! Balloons are coming! We used to pay much more! But we will not fly a second time. A good little bit! If you take a complete set - a flight on a balloon + a tour of Cappadocia - then this happiness costs 149 bucks. But we don't need that either. I sincerely hoped to hit the "AWOL" on public transport.
Another bus arrived, delivering us safe and sound to the hotel. First, though, we took a few people to the X Mountain Lodge. It was on the outskirts, but next to the Hadjilar gondola lift, where, according to rumors, the best slopes are located. This hotel cost some absolutely insane money. I didn’t even consider it as housing.
In our hotel, the Russian-speaking receptionist greeted us with a joyful exclamation of "Hello! ". A pleasant surprise! I read that in this region, not only in Russian, even in English, no one is alo!
After leaving the junk at the reception, we proceeded to the canteen for the hilling ritual.
Everyone was good. They changed money and bought skipasses. Mallet girls even agreed to fly on balloons. Sasha said that he would fly on a balloon another time with his wife who had stayed at home, otherwise she would never forgive him. And our new Zaporozhye friends came here purely to ride. Well, Vadik and I froze to the fullest. The guide sold ski passes for dollars, and he only had 50 lifts. He assured us that we could not skate again, except that we were Olympic champions in giant slalom. Aha! Tell us! By the way, in Erciyes, according to rumors, ski passes were sold not for the number of days, but for the number of lifts, which is very reasonable, in my opinion. The weather here is very unstable. At any moment, the wind can blow, fog can fall, stones can fall from the sky. The cable cars will stupidly stop, and in this case, you can only wipe yourself with a daily ski pass. And that, hardly. In addition, two people can ride on one ski pass, and even three people - there is no time delay. And the more lifts, the cheaper. One lift costs 17 lira, and if you take a ski pass for 200, one lift will cost only 4.5.
We don't need a tour, and we don't need to change the currency either. We disappointed Suleiman.
Immediately after hilling, we were given the keys to the rooms. Vadik and I got a room on the 1st floor. The reception was located on the 0th. So I had to use the elevator. And he worked! And in a bad review, they cried that they didn’t!
The room turned out to be a corner one, which in this case was an advantage - we had as many as 2 windows! And they are not so small as it was written in the review.
View from the window
And the temperature in the room is quite comfortable. And there is hot water, and a mini-bar, and a tea-coffee set, and plasma, and Wi-Fi in the room.
Sorry for the mess
And this is a hotel without a category! That's all just zashib! Who was dissatisfied with what? Let's see, of course, what they feed here, but that's later. In the evening. And now let's go to the mountain! Only one o'clock in the afternoon. We still have time to roll. Sleepless drunken night as never happened! I felt like a young grasshopper.
Quickly dressed in ski armor. Vadik was too lazy to go up the mountain in boots. Completely screwed up! What's there to go? Three hundred meters total. Barely persuaded.
At the reception they asked about a free shuttle to the ski lift. He said he would call the driver now. After 5 minutes, the busik drove up, and we, like kings, arrived together at the ticket office of the Tekir lift, having passed these unfortunate 300 meters.
We bought one ski pass for two for 100 lifts. Hryvnias were withdrawn from the card at the rate of 4.05 per lira. Mdya! So it is more profitable than withdrawing cash!
Let's go to the gondola. We put ourselves in one hole - we were wrapped up! It turns out that this is for coats. They are listed here separately. I had to bypass the fences from the sturgeon net.
At the entrance, the dude started rubbing something into me, poking his head. Conflicting information about the need to wear helmets slipped on the network. I asked the guys, while they were still riding here, to track if there are people on the mountain without helmets? They themselves often go to Bukovel, and wearing helmets has become a habit with them. But not with us. We don't like helmets. Perhaps I'm wrong, but the helmet, in my opinion, is needed only so that the brains, in which case, do not spread along the slope, but remain neatly lying in the helmet. In short, the guys saw people without helmets. Therefore, we hoped to do without them.
And the man, meanwhile, kept poking and poking. I spread my hands and said "tumoro". I don’t know if he understood or not, but we got into the car and left. By the way, there are ski cassettes outside the capsule, but the locals mostly go inside with their skis. Are you afraid to lose?
The track under the gondola was blue to blue, and with a bunch of teapots. So we decided to go somewhere. We didn't get far - it was already quite late. We went to the right to the lift "Develi". There was no one there at all. Except for the cable car. Who also clung to us for helmets. He made it clear that he would not let me in again. Be-be-be! We got up by his tedious, slow cable car, blown by all the winds.
Let's go to another one, under a hood and with heated seats. Here we were not driven and we rolled down a couple of times. Tired. We moved to the Hisardzhik lift or Divan (by the name of the local cafe).
Here we met with Sasha. We did a couple of descents here. Rising a third time, hit the cloud. Visibility is poor. Well fuck him! Time to go!
By the way, we grabbed enough stones! Poor skis, it's good that they are old!
Back in the room, we decided to tease Verka's husband, a crazy skier who, together with the gang, flew out of Kharkov. Their flight was already at 13.00. They haven't even made it to the hotel yet, and we've already had time to ride. We sent them a couple of photos.
I like this situation, of course. Almost all tours to Turkey and Egypt depart from Kyiv late at night. And they come back in the evening. While planes from the regions fly there in the afternoon, and back, on the contrary, in the early morning! And this despite the fact that tours from Kyiv are cheaper than similar tours from, say, Zaporozhye or Kharkov. Very good! The people of Kiev get an extra two days of rest. No, well, of course, and mere mortals are not forbidden to fly from the capital. Only now the trains for this case are not imprisoned in any way. Look, but choose! Either insomnia torture or a stripped-down tour.
Dinner here starts at 18.30. There is still time. You need to walk around the area. On the map, I saw that there is a lake here. One of the Google photos was simply amazing - the reflection of the volcano in the water surface. Why is this photo not mine? Gotta fix it! Let's go look.
But in the place where, according to the map, there should be a lake, we saw only a snowy field. Semyon Semyonitch! Frost, however! Everything is frozen! It was also snowballed!
Oh! Do not become a great photographer for me!
Let's go to eat grief in the canteen. They took a backpack with them, in which they put an eggplant with a strong drink. The canteen was on our floor. And we initially went down. There were also tables, but they set it up on our floor.
About food. Enough to overeat and die young.
Of course, the abundance inherent in all-inclusive desires was not here. But still... 3-4 types of hot dishes with meat (chicken, beef, lamb). Soups. Fresh cucumber-tomatoes, parsley, dill, mint, arugula. Olives-olives. Cheeses. Hummus. A couple of salads. Oranges-tangerines-apples. Sweets. Is it not enough? Tea was only for breakfast. As well as water in sealed plastic cups. Both for breakfast and dinner.
There is no alcohol. But no one forbids drinking their own. The only thing is that for a week there was never a fish. Well, the lake is frozen!
We live like on a volcano. . . (piece #2) >>>
