6:00 pm

We have achieved success!
We are now in Turkey!
The train to the Greek/Turkish border was interesting. We had to stop in No Man's Land surrounded by a bunch of guys in camo. We got off the comfortable Greek train, then had to wait for the Turkish train. It was an hour late.... so we sat at the small little cafe with an old wood-burning stove for heat, and ate packaged Greek snacks (crappy compared to the wonderful feta cheese pastries that we had eaten the day before in Meteora). The train pulled up at 4:30 pm and we all immediately looked at each other and laughed. It had only one car! The Turkish train system is described as one of the most antiquated in Europe. It's crazy how small and delapidated it is. Still, we are comfortable.
After we boarded, the train departed and after about a kilometer, we crossed a metal bridge. Greek flags were painted on each support beam on the first half of the bridge and Turkish flags were painted on the second half of each support beam of the bridge. Boom! Just like that, we were in Turkey.... unofficially.
Five minutes later, the train stopped at a small office in the middle of nowhere (open fields) with signs saying "Duty Free" and "Customs". It was the moment of truth. Neither Pam, Lorri, or myself had ever applied for a Visa, researched Visas, or ever needed to do so until now, so we really had no idea what to expect. When passport control came on board to stamp everyone's passport, he got to us and said, "Oh, okay, United States, Canada, come with me." We followed him into the tiny office building, handed over 20 Euro, got a sticker and a stamp, and walla! We were OFFICIALLY in Turkey. Easy, squeasy. I was almost disappointed it was so easy.

LATER
We are almost to Istanbul. I'm tired. I have not washed my hair in like 5 days. It's totally gross. I haven't actually showered (fully) in 3 days. Greece was so cold and the first hotel in Meteora had no heat and the hotel in Thessaloniki only had hot water between lıke 7 AM and 9 AM... then again for two hours at night. All I was able to do was soap my bum in cold water. Brrr.