Tour of Turkey

Day 4:  Istanbul and Traveling

I don’t know where to start today’s post.  Let’s start with we are all okay, but have been in three taxis, two different airports in Istanbul, one bus station, one shuttle bus station, and were on the phone for a total of over 40 minutes internationally with a Turkish Airlines office that was likely within 10 miles of us the entire time.  Now, we are sitting in the airport at 2:45 am, writing while waiting for our 70-minute flight at 7:20 am.  Here’s the story….

It all started innocently enough.  First thing in the morning, we asked our hotel manager what time we should leave for our 7:45 pm flight, and he said 5:20, so we set off for a day of exploring.  We walked and walked the neighborhood of Ortakoy, which was beautiful, but exhausting because it was very hilly.  We also came across the Spice Market, which was lovely but we were tired and ready to leave, so we got back to our hotel early, at 4:30.

Since we were early we sat and talked to the same manager for a while.  We re-confirmed the time we needed to leave, Jason and I had a beer, Jade had a cup of tea.  We all toasted to our last day in Istanbul and started getting so excited for our first night in a cave hotel in Cappadocia.  Or so we thought.  The manager called our taxi and we got in and told the driver where to go and the time of our flight.  When we said 7:45 he immediately panicked and said he didn’t think we would make it.  He said that at this time of night on a Friday, it would take us 2 hours just to get there!  Jason started to worry, I was trying to remain positive, but it was quickly becoming apparent that we weren’t going to make it.  The traffic was UNREAL.  When we finally got to the airport, we ran in but had just missed it.  They wouldn’t let us on at all, so we went to the ticket window where they informed us that this was the last flight out to the town we were headed to, and any surrounding cities.   And because we booked at a promotional rate, our tickets were not transferable OR REFUNDABLE, so to get on the next flight (the next morning) was going to cost us $800!

We thought about our options and asked about an overnight bus, so she said we would need to hurry and catch the shuttle to the bus station leaving in 7 minutes, so we booked it out of there and just made the shuttle bus.  There were two overnight buses to get us to our destination – while on the shuttle we called the hotel to tell them to expect us in the morning.  About 45 minutes later, we de-bussed, but, wait for it….. we weren’t at the bus station.  We were at the harbor where apparently all of the buses wind up. OY!  Jump into taxi #2 to take us to the (disgusting) bus depot.  Okay, now we had two options to get us where we needed to go, but alas, both buses were full.  Our only option was if three people didn’t make the bus, then we could get on.  So we sat and waited while Jason called the airline to find out why they weren’t just putting us on the next flight but charging us.

Needless to say, the buses couldn’t take us, so we hopped into yet ANOTHER taxi to get to a hotel near the other airport (which is where the next morning’s flight would leave from), thinking we could at least be close to the airport and get a few hours rest.  Jason remained on the phone for most of the taxi ride while I talked up the driver, a very nice man that invited us to stay with him and his family for the night (so sweet).  His theory was that it wasn’t our kismet to leave yet because we needed to meet him.  The airline compromised only enough to sell us tickets for $750 lira.  Thanks!  Whatever, we needed to get into a hotel.  But just go ahead and guess what happened……

All of the hotel rooms around the airport were full.  Of course they were.  We finally just asked our driver to leave us at the airport (at 11:45pm - a full 7 hours after our first cab ride to the airport).  We figured we could at least sit in the lounge and get some rest and wash up, BUT…  the lounge doesn’t open until 5am.  Okay, so we thought we could at least check in and get our luggage off our hands, but the woman at the counter, who felt so sorry for us, very apologetically told us we needed to go to the ticket counter because something was wrong with our reservation.  Seriously?  Okay, so I went to the ticket counter and finally, we caught a break.  The woman worked it out so that we could just get on the next flight without charging us.  We found free wifi (and some sweet house music on it’s second loop).  Jade fell asleep to it while sitting at the table.  I’m delirious, Jason is a fighter.  It’s now 3:28 and we can check in at 4, and get to the lounge at 5, then make our flight at 7:20.  Yippee.

This officially is our worst vacation day ever.