Turkey Trot - Are We There Yet?

Turkey Trot - Overview
Turkey Trot - First Class
Turkey Trot - Are We There Yet?
Turkey Trot - Ephesus
Turkey Trot - Mary's House and Basilica of St. John
Turkey Trot - Swissotel Efes
Turkey Trot - Taking the Bus and Priene
Turkey Trot - Putting on the Ritz
Turkey Trot - The Blue Mosque
Turkey Trot - Topkapi Palace
Turkey Trot - Hagia Sophia
Turkey Trot - Carpets and Grand Bazaar
Turkey Trot - Dolmabahçe Palace and Taksim Square
Turkey Trot - Bosphorus Cruise
Turkey Trot - Turning Blu
Turkey Trot - Getting This Turkey Home

It seemed it would take us forever to reach our destination.  After an overnight flight from our various homes in the US, we reached London and after standing in lines to clear immigration and security, wandered around the airport for awhile until we finally met at one of the British Airways clubs.

Because C and I were using points, we ended up with a longer layover than we would have liked.  C's layover was the shortest at nearly 5.5 hours while D's was the longest at 7.5 hours.  One of the rules of using points is that you need to be flexible.  While our flights weren't free (we had to pay fuel surcharges for the legs on BA) they were certainly much cheaper than they would have been otherwise.

Naturally we had selected the lounge that was at the complete opposite end of the terminal from where our flight would be departing.  So we took our leave of the club and wandered through the shopping mall that is Heathrow Terminal 5.  There wasn't much seating at our gate and since we'd been sitting most of the afternoon and would be sitting for another four hours on the plane, we enjoyed standing around for awhile until it was time to board.

C and I ended up sitting next to each other in "business class" while D was in economy.  If you've ever flown intra-Europe business class you understand why I put the phrase in quotes.  That's because this plane, like many others in the region, doesn't really differentiate between business class and coach seats.  What they do is only sell aisle and window seats and leave the middle one open.  Sometimes the middle one is not even a full-sized seat.  But you don't get the extra leg room like you'd get on a US domestic first class (which is really business class) seat.  Still, there's more elbow room too and they did feed us a meal, which was nice since we'd be landing so late.  Even D got some free food, unlike the tiny nuts or pretzels package she'd have gotten on board a US carrier.

And finally we landed in Istanbul!  By now it was closing in on midnight and we were just completely worn out.  Of course, we still had to go through immigration.  Oh and two of us really needed to find the rest room.  Amazingly, once we deplaned we did not see a single restroom between our gate and immigration.  Fortunately we saw one on the concourse coming from the other direction as it approached immigration so we were feeling much better by the time we got in line for Customs.  After approaching the immigration officer as a group and presenting our passports and visas we were able to go through with no issues and much relief was felt by all.  Then it was on to baggage claim where C and I got our bags fairly quickly and we had to wait for D's to finally make an appearance.

After a quick stop at the ATM we wandered around outside looking for the shuttle stop for the Marriott.  That was our first big reminder that not all countries are as anti-smoking as the US.  We had to hack our way through a smoke cloud to get to the island where buses picked up passengers, only to find that we'd missed the shuttle by about 5 minutes, meaning we had to wait another 25 minutes for the next one.

It finally arrived and drove us the 15-20 minutes to the Marriott Courtyard.  As we approached the parking lot we encountered something that would be quite common on our trip: the guard at the hotel brought out a long mirror on a stick that he used to examine the underside of our bus (the hotel's own shuttle!) for explosives.  Another reminder we weren't in Kansas (or Tennessee, Illinois or California) anymore.

Both front desk clerks were busy checking in other guests when we arrived and although I'm sure it wasn't a very long wait, in my fuzzy mind it seemed to take forever.  But we finally did get checked in and they were very nice and spoke English quite well.  We did remind them we needed a rollaway bed and it arrived about the time we got to our room.

Usually hotel rooms are smaller in Europe and that was no exception here.  The rollaway was wedged between the foot of one twin bed and the desk.  Made for tight quarters trying to find places to open our luggage!  But we were so tired at that point it didn't really matter - and this was why we'd chosen the cheaper hotel over the one attached to the terminal that was 2-3 times more expensive.  We just weren't going to be in the room long enough for it to matter.  We did have trouble getting the temperature down low enough as we all got hot during the night but not hot enough to bother getting out of bed.

Come morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet downstairs.  It wasn't great but it wasn't terrible.  I was just glad to have some non-airplane food.  Then we took the shuttle bus back to the airport.

The domestic terminal at IST is a throwback to air travel from, say, the 60s. That's because until 2000 this was the international terminal and it was, in fact, built in the 1960s.  It's definitely a no-frills place but then most of the flights are not very long so it's almost like a bus station for airplanes.  Since IST is the hub for Turkish Airlines, they get the nicer gates and splurged for better creature comforts.  We were flying Pegasus Air, which is rather like Southwest though there's no open seating on board.  We did get bulkhead seats and we each got a cheese sandwich, since we'd paid for the upgraded package to be sure our luggage wasn't overweight (the more you pay, the more your luggage can weigh!).  We did have to take a bus from the gate to the aircraft but it was fine.  We got to Izmir safely and on time.

The Izmir airport, by comparison, was a joy.  It had only been open about 6 months so everything was still shiny and new.  We collected our bags and met our guide, T, who'd come to escort us to our hotel.  As the airport was closer to Kuşadası than to Izmir, my friend M had come to greet us at the airport as well, which was very nice of him.  We talked for a bit and firmed up our plans for the next day and he went home and we went to the hotel.

T gave us the tour during our drive and once we reached the Swissotel Efes we had a repeat of the "guard with the mirror on a stick" thing before parking.  Then T got us checked in and we went up to our lovely, cool room.  We'd been upgraded to a larger-than-standard room which gave us plenty of space and a nice view of the center courtyard.  We got our instructions for the next morning and then we were left to our own devices.

Fortunately in Izmir there are loads of al fresco cafés all up and down the waterfront.  We thoroughly enjoyed walking around and enjoying the weather before finally selecting one and having dinner.  At last we'd made it to our destination and we could finally start relaxing.