Turkey

Above: Our destination Sirkeci (Istanbul) Railway Station 1983.

Sunday 2nd October 1983

First anti-malaria tablets taken. I think that they were Maloprim. Maloprim™ (dapsone/pyrimethamine) was registered in Australia for malaria prophylaxis in 1979. It was phased out in 1990 after increasing resistance in malaria parasites made it ineffective. It was generally well tolerated although it could cause skin rashes or allergic reactions in some people. In higher doses (more than one tablet weekly) it could cause a fall in white blood cells (agranulocytosis), making the person more likely to get sick from infections. People who experienced this rare side effect got very sick within a few weeks of starting Maloprim. It resolved quickly after stopping the medication.

Dawn brought out a check in the night’s rainstorm, but the wind was still howling. We checked out of our room and walked down to the harbour. From here ferries only went to Keramoti, and as we wanted Kavala, we had to get to the hell we’d put in at, 10 miles up the coast. A taxi obliged to the tune of 350 Drachma (George knocked him down from 400 Drachma) and we arrived to find the ferries were not running due to the adverse weather.

We returned to Thasos by bus (only 46 Drachma each – we’d literally been taken for a ride by the taxi driver) and got the Keramoti ferry at 11:30 hrs. We polished of the remainder of our bread and sundries as the boat plied a tortuous path across the swell. The bus was waiting at Keramoti, and after a change at Hrisoupolis we arrived in Xánthi (Ξάνθη) and more memories were awakened from the dim recesses of our brains where 1979 was filed. We plodded out to the desolate railway station to await the 15:20 hrs. train to Istanbul in Turkey. The sky was blue but it was still very blustery as we tarried at the old “ghost” station.

The train pulled in late at 16:30 hrs. and we lived the epic Hounslow Swagman journey of a previous October. It was just as cold but we were better equipped to cope with it. We bumped through the night at a slow pace with many long stops. Luckily, we managed to get a free carriage where we could lay across the bench seats and slumber fitfully through the night. At one stage we were entertained by a human spider monkey of a lad who pranced, danced, mimed and gesticulated until we ignored him and he went away.

At the Greek/Turkish border the train stops at a bridge and the Greek engine is uncoupled. Meanwhile Turkish Border Officials board the train and check your credentials. A Turkish engine then picks up the carriages and the train continues on it’s merry way across the Turkish countryside.

When we had made this journey in 1979 the Greek train was late arriving and we missed the connection with the Turkish train in the morning. This meant that we had to spend a tedious 12 hours waiting at Pythio Railway Station on the border until the next train in the evening.

Today Wikipedia reports that “The station buildings are a beautiful example of late 19th century railway architecture, but rundown and almost abandoned. Inside the waiting rooms are barely usable and the station is unstaffed”. Not much difference to 1979, and we were not allowed to leave the station then.