People are out to get me today. We were headed back to Istanbul from Ephesus this evening and were
supposed to get a transfer from our hotel to the airport. That usually means a prearranged car picks you up from your hotel and drives you and your luggage to the airport. Easy. Instead we get picked up, taken to a tour company office where they said to wait for a driver. Driver took us to join a tour at a carpet shop where we had to change busses, move all our luggage, and then got the slow scenic roundabout route to the airport. Awesome.
Whoppers cost $5 each in the airport, marginally better than the $3.50 they were charging for the tiny cheeseburgers at McDonald’s. The security people threw out my bottled water (I guess Turkey is more Western than Middle Eastern after all). On the shuttle bus on the way to the plane a lady standing above me coughed down at me and I could feel her breath and germs entering all my orifices. I’m probably going to wake up with whatever she has 3 days from now.
The plane ride was bumpy, though it probably really wasn’t, but when my nerves are shot every little movement in the air feels like the plane is going down. I was knitting on the flight to relax and the flight attendant took my needles away because they are “forbidden” and “dangerous, even though I’ve knit on every flight this trip and no one has said anything about it. They promised to give them back when we land. I guess no one cares if I stab someone in baggage claim?
To top it off, some idiot with an iPad was letting their kid play a game that lets out a loud whistle every 20 seconds and it was driving me crazy. I felt like stabbing them with a pencil or a ball point pen — my only remaining weapons. Then I found out it’s not an inconsiderate parent, but a pet owner. Someone brought a real live bird on board that has been tweeting his heart out the entire flight. Somebody please stab me now.
Flying into Istanbul is a bit stressful for nervous flyers because you circle over the water a bunch and in the dark there is nothing to see but blackness below, but you keep getting lower and lower with nowhere to land . . . and at the last minute the lights appear and you touch down. Happy to leave this bit behind me. Off to retrieve my knitting needles and I think there’s a bird that needs stuffing.
Postscript: All is well in Istanbul. Our hotel here feels like home and Josh and I tucked the kids in bed and then went out walking, window shopping, and coffee drinking. A few more days of bliss before we head home.