Blog - foXnoMad

Turkish Bus Service: Ulusoy

by Anil Polat | Feb 17, 2007 | Car, Travel Journal | 2

The bus ride from Ankara to Istanbul is about 50YTL ~ roughly equal to about 30US dollars. For that price you get a non-stop trip for a ride about the distance from New York to Washington, DC. The leather seats are wide and comfortable and you get more than enough leg room, even for taller passengers. They serve a variety of non-alcoholic drinks throughout the journey (also included in your ticket fare) and there is dinner and snacks along the way. All from the comfort of your window side seat.

A beautiful trip if you go during the day through foggy mountains of northwestern Turkey. Those of you heading to the airport will find free shuttle service in both Ankara and Istanbul. The free wireless Internet (yes on the bus!) will let you email, MSN, and read L’avant Poste during your ride.

Wireless Internet on Turkish Buses

by Anil Polat | Feb 17, 2007 | Car, Tech, Travel Journal | 0

How do I know this? Because I am blogging from one now. Ulusoy provides wireless Internet free of charge for the length of the trip (or more accurately the stregnth of you battery). I’m currently on the 5 hour bus ride from Ankara to Istanbul and I’ve seen about 5-6 other people with their laptops out. Most are on MSN Messenger (quite popular in Europe) while the rest are watching – I suspect – pirated copies of Lost.

The net is slow for a many things, great for casual surfing and not the best for creating hyperlinks and adding images to blog posts. Also, don’t foget to beware of computer-to-computer connections.

Maybe bus Internet prompted Avis to get on board?

Changing The Clocks Later A Smart Way To Reduce Energy Consumption

by Anil Polat | Feb 17, 2007 | Green | 5

I was one of the ones who didn’t know this.

For those of you that don’t know there is a change in the start and end dates for Daylight Saving Time this year.? It will start on Sunday, March 11th, 2007 at 2:00am and will end on Sunday, November 4th, 2007.? So for 2007 DST starts 3 weeks earlier on the second Sunday of March and ends a week later on the first Sunday of November.? This change was made as attempt to reduce energy consumption.?

Lufthansa Gets Lost Luggage Back To Me In One Day

by Anil Polat | Feb 15, 2007 | Travel, Travel Journal | 4

Yes, I have to give them props – I recieved my one small semi-suitcase today. They delivered it right to the house so I’m good to go now. It will be nice to change my underwear, brush my teeth, and smell like me again.

Luggage Lost in Munich

by Anil Polat | Feb 15, 2007 | Advice, Air, Travel Journal | 2

Well, I hate to blame the airline (Lufthansa), but I arrived safe and sound yet without my luggage. It sucks, but as long as my plane doesn’t crash I won’t complain about these mishaps too much. Does anyone have any experiance with this? As much as I’ve traveled this is the first time it has happened to me. Wouldn’t be so much of a problem if I were leaving again in 4 days. I’ll keep the posts updated as much as I can, but I don’t have a plug adapter with me so I’ll have to conserve power 🙂

Holla!

1 Hour 14 Minutes

by Anil Polat | Feb 15, 2007 | Air, Travel Journal | 0

The minimum amount of time required to catch an international flight during the middle of a snow storm in rush hour traffic. I think that getting to the airport about 2 hours beforehand for international flights is all you really need.