There weren’t really much in the way of surprises that day. The flight had the comfortable 1.50pm take-off time, so I could sleep until my normal time, have breakfast, gather anything I may have forgot about the night before, and still be ready for my ride to the airport. The weather was the only strange thing, as the days before it had been hot in my hometown, but of course on that morning there was a thunderstorm. Luckily, as we left the city limits, that soon passed as well.
Surprisingly, in Budapest it didn’t rain while I dragged my luggage from the parking to the terminal. Check-in, getting coffee went off without any problems. An annoying thing at the airport was that the wifi was nowhere to be found. Quite strange, as I usually post a picture on my Instagram before take-off. I even got a really nice picture, which I would have loved to post.
The only other anomaly was that we got on the bus, went to the plane, and the bus doors didn’t open. We just waited and waited for many minutes. It turned out that we had to wait for a person in a wheelchair to get on the plane, though not sure why the two weren’t doable at the same time.
I got a seat next to the window. I have a Turkish Airlines loyalty card. One benefit is that I’ve set among my preferences that I like to sit next to the window, so now I always get window seat. So, my fellow travellers, that’s something I recommend. Get loyalty cards, accounts for everything, as they usually have benefits even if you only use them a few times. As someone who has worked as a receptionist, I always upgraded loyalty members if we oversold on the cheaper rooms. Believe me, overselling on the basic rooms is quite common.
As the plane was getting ready for take-off, it started to rain quite heavily. So, there was rain while I was in Budapest! Luckily, I didn’t get wet this time. It really didn’t bother the plane either. Within seconds of being in the air, the rain was gone, and the sun was shining again.
The flight itself was uneventful. There were few clouds, so we got little turbulence. One new thing was the food. At every Turkish Airline flight we got a sandwich, a mousse, and drink. On that flight we also got a nice chicken salad. It did have milk, but I took my pill and was fine. They didn’t give it the usual way either, but on a handy paper tray. I hope they recycle though.
Once the plane landed we headed out and managed to go into departures instead of arrivals. Good fun. Backtracked and finally got to the passport control. The thing about passport control in Istanbul is that they make you walk up and down blocked off corridors instead of just opening the crossways. So, everyone is pretty tired by the time they actually get to the stamping person. I call it the start of Turkish training camp. I actually saw some Hungarian wrestlers get off the plane. They had wide shoulders and smashed in noses. Hope that they get plastic surgery once they retire. Though noses are notoriously difficult.
We got the luggage okay and visited the ladies’ afterwards. When I got back my boss was sitting next to a guy and they both had their arms crossed over their chests. I found it so funny, I just started laughing. Then we got the paperwork done for the rental car. My boss has an Avis card, and that usually gets us an upgrade on the car. We got a nice Ford this time. We also asked how much the tunnel is to the Asian side and found out that only 20Ł. Well worth all the time we can save, so we settled on using that from now on. A minibus took us to the rental parking. We had to wait for it and there was a family of all women next to us. The little girl started screaming at the top of her lungs. Poor thing, was probably very tired. This is to my friend Tony: Screaming kid! He’ll get it. The minibus was so full, there weren’t enough seats, so I got to ride with the driver. As I’m learning to drive now and struggling with all the pedals, I kept an eye on his feet as to how he does it. Quite neatly.
We got the car and were off to the Asian side. Traffic was heavy, but we kept a good pace. The tunnel worked out well, just as we expected. On the way to the hotel, we passed the airport on the Asian side. Before that there was some sort of surface mining going on with the dust going everywhere. After that we saw two parallel running concrete tubes that were being constructed. They were massive, but there was no apparent reason for them. Also, some basis for high electricity wiring were coming towards them from the other side of the hills. I have no idea what any of this is for, so I just described them. Maybe I’ll find out some day.
We got to the hotel, Hampton by Hilton Istanbul Kurtkoy, and check-in was as painful as it usually is, with my boss repeating the same thing over and over again, a really long list of requirements that seem to always confuse the receptionists. Especially as most of them speak very minimal English. I may put some English teaching videos onto that YouTube channel of mine that I would design for these people. I worked as a receptionist myself, so that would be a good basis for them. I’m adding another project! Somebody stop me!
Of course, the first rooms weren’t right, as they faced the very busy road. We went back, and I clarified to the receptionist that the rooms being quiet and non-smoking were top priority, all the other things were down the list.
Second rooms were good, and I got a really nice view of the square next to the hotel. The room also had a nice couch, perfect for sitting on and writing this blog. It did have a balcony, but strangely no furniture on it.
I settled into the room a bit, and we were off to find something for dinner. Before that though my boss needed to get his phones out of the car, so I waited in the lobby and had a look around. I found a typo again! What is it with Hilton hotels in Turkey and not being able to spell in English. Instead of “quiet” they wrote “quite”. Of course, as an English teacher I had to point it out, and the two staff members didn’t understand what I was talking about! I left it, as we were off to eat. I was very hungry. There are plenty of places to eat around the hotel. Even our favourite chain restaurant, Tavuk Dünyası, which is where we went. The night was quite cold, but in the restaurant it was nice. Very full, as usually for Ramadan dinner Turkish people go out to eat. I got a nice lemonade, though maybe a bit sweeter than I’d make it. My boss got all his food and had almost eaten it too by the time I got my chicken, pasta, salad combo. It was a bit much, but I ate it all.
After that I popped back into the hotel for a cardigan that I brought, and we went to the Carefour near the hotel to get some juice. We also had a look around for dinner options while we’re there.
I got in pretty late, washed my hair in the big shower. I like the shampoo and conditioner they provide. They also have a very nice hairdryer. The bed was very comfortable, but I had trouble falling asleep all the same.
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