Happy Thanksgiving to all!
This will likely be the last post of this trip. We spend all day tomorrow traveling back to the US. I don’t expect anything strange or fun to report……We need a wake up at 6:45 to catch a cab to Ataturk airport for a 9AM British Air flight to Heathrow and then connect onward, on BA, to BWI, Baltimore, MD. Hopefully home by 7pm. And then start to manage the time zone adjustment.
Today was our drive to Izmir from Sirince to fly back to Istabul. It was a wild night of thunder, lightning and rain and additional rain on the drive to Izmir. We’ve been here more than 2 weeks, it’s been very dry and dusty, and no rain at all. Akin at the cottages said Turkey was crying, shedding tears, at our departure!! Very sweet.
Into Istanbul early afternoon and decided to see about getting our seats for tomorrow’s flight out. For some reason I’ve been unable to checkin online on all of the various flight segments we’ve had for this entire trip. I don’t understand that. I’ve tried with VPN, without VPN, and even at home before leaving, I’ve not been able to checkin online.
As a result we sat in the Airport for an hour, had some coffee, and then went to the British Air checkin counter which opened back up at 1420. They don’t have a ticket office at the airport. Seems every other airline does…..
We then caught a cab, handed him the address to our Nature Hotel Apartments for our last night. Turns out our Deluxe suite with balcony became a superior suite (sleeps 6) with French doors in lieu of balcony. It’s very close to the airport and in a small community on the water west of the city, overlooking the ships transiting into the Bosporus.
We settled quickly and wandered into the town to scout out dinner and other procurements. We walked along the marina where there were many very tired and old boats, mostly motor boats. We walked farther along the trail and noticed the queue of tankers and freighters waiting their turn to transit.
It rained a bit more and we walked back to the flat. We started rearranging our stuff and pulled out the small duffel I’ve lugged around to accommodate various things that we will check in the flights tomorrow. Lightens the load immensely!
Back into town for dinner. Looking for a place with fish! Picked a place for no real reason. We picked a few mezes whish were really nice. And picked a fairly sizable plate of turbot fish/kalcan. The meze were really delicious and the fish showed up was tender and sweet and you had to watch for the bones. Oh well , that’s how it works here. It was really good and probably the most expensive dinner we’ve had here in Turkey!!!
Back to the hotel flat and time to really get ready for going home…..
