Day 2

The village wing is a total slut where cars are concerned so a thorough cleaning took some time. 

Especially as large hessian sacks of logs and driftwood are regularly transported leaving proportionate amounts of detritus. 

However, by the end of Tuesday the inside was spotless; and a large plastic crate was in place with fire extinguisher, warning triangles, car tools and a first aid kit ready for the main visa inspection.

Day 3

Day 3, Wednesday 28th, started with a visit to the village garage for a good car wash. 

Then to the Maliye where the system has changed slightly in the three weeks since our previous visit. 

Now there are three parallel queues just inside the entrance on the left. 

Trick is to join the biggest one, comprised totally of men waving one or more little plastic covered car books, and hand over your book when your turn comes. 

Of course you will already have paid your car tax up to date or you’ll have wasted valuable time in the queue. 

The man takes your book, taps your car details into his computer and, if your vehicle is debt free, prints off a flimsy sheet in duplicate with you and your car’s details and a large green MTV on it (it has nothing whatsoever to do with a popular television music channel). 

You are then told to write your address and telephone number on the back of the form, and hand it to the woman at the corner desk – a very short queue. 

She tears off the copy you have written on, initials the top copy and returns it to you. 

You then join the third queue, another short one, to get your official stamp and final signature. 

This whole process took about an hour after which I roared around to the Market Place to get the gas system test done. 

Note that no money is paid to the Maliye now and this seems to be upsetting the civil servants who work there.  Under the old system they got the cash, now it is privatised and the main TÜV testing station is where you pay.

The testing station was closed.  A phone call to my mechanic revealed the tester (there is only one) works on Monday, Thursday and Friday. 

So the test has to be postponed to Day 4, which is actually the date the current visa expires. 

I head home realising I should probably have allocated two working weeks not one to this process.

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