Boat finally arrives at 1.30am, much to everyone's disgust, particularly after repeated reassurances that it would be twenty minutes. Hot and smelly and crowded inside, and we get a poor night's sleep on the floor.

We arrive in Samos at 9am, having missed the ferry to Turkey. Several others are in the same position as us, and we all book tickets for the 5pm transfer. There is, apparently another boat leaving earlier, but since we've all reserved with the 5pm sailing company we're stuck. We spend the day trying to avoid the sun, and eventually end up sitting in restaurants with a coke, or in the park.

The boat for Kusadasi amazingly leaves on time. It's a small ferry for about 40-50, as opposed to the previous ones which carried several hundred as well as vehicles. This has the advantage of being nearer the water, and thus with better views and nicer. It also has the disadvantage of nearly capsizing every time a wave goes near it, so we end up sitting outside throughout, feeling too sick to venture inside.

We arrive in Turkey at 7pm, for border formalities such as throwing a fair chunk of our remaining and essential sterling at them for visas. We team up with several others attempting to go to Istanbul that night and secure a lift with a suspiciously helpful bloke on account of my foot and the bus station being 2km away. Said bloke takes us to an exchange place, with reasonable rates, and drives us to his friend's hotel, where they organise us tickets and get us a lift to the bus station. We decided Turkish hospitality is a brilliant start. The bus is £10 and fair quality, apart from the lack of toilets and English spoken. Once it's stopped a couple of times we sleep okay. Hairy moment for me as I descend to go into a service station then re-board the bus to find it's the wrong one, and there are several identical buses, all going to Istanbul. I find Iain a few minutes later, and relax.