At first.....

Just to summarize why I am here, I am here to inspect a particular kind of marble known as Bianca Nomara which is only found here in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. I will be here anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months, only time will tell.....

To start things off, the plane ride was terrible. I sat next to a woman who had 3 children, two of which were babies and were CRYING the entire flight. I don't see how they can sustain that for 11 hours, but they managed to. I didn't sleep at all, I did however get lots of drinks and food from Turkish Airlines which was great. Once I landed in Istanbul, everything seemed quite nice, very few people spoke English but at least I was in the International Terminal. I then realized I had to make my way thru customs and find the Domestic Terminal for my connecting flight. It was like I stepped into a very different place, all of a sudden no one spoke English and every was talking to me in Turkish. I sat around for about an hour, didn't want to try to get something from the cafe, not quite prepared for that kind of interaction just yet. I also couldn't find any place to exchange my US Dollars into Turkish Lira (YTL). So I waited, boarded a very small plane on my way to Ankara. Once we were in flight they started serving lunch, very strange considering this is less than an hour flight. Anyway, the young lady sitting next to me said something, I don't know what but it sounded... not very nice. I got my salad, wasn't bad, I was really thirsty but didn't know how to ask for that, a little nervous yes. I finally arrived in Ankara, and started my way to collect my luggage. First off, I couldn't find the baggage claim, but I did eventually I even got all my bags except MY BIKE. I had no idea where to pic up oversized items, and there was no way my little Turkish language book was going to help me with that. I wondered around aimlessly until finally I see it being rolled out of a small hallway and just propped against the wall. Well, at least it survived, I was worried it would go missing. Next task was to go find my ride, I stood outside in the pick-up area for at least an hour, until FINALLY I got picked up. There was some confusion with me being in the International Terminal vs Domestic. Anyway all was good, we loaded up my things and started on our 5 hr journey to Afyon, yes 5 hrs.

Once in Afyon, I was taken directly to see the owner of the stone company, keep in mind I looked like crap having been traveling for over 15 hrs. We had a short conversation, and I was let on my way to Ikbal Termal Hotel. This is quite a nice hotel, definitely in the middle of no where but that's okay, there is a nice pool and the food is supposed to be great, however I didn't make it to dinner that first night, I passed right out and woke up at 7am the next day just in time to be picked up for my first days work.