So that night I went for a bite to eat and a few drinks with Trev in Tacsim. Later on we met up some of his work colleagues and went for a couple beers in a micro-brewery nearby. I had to get up quite early the next morning as I was getting a shuttle across to the airport at 6am.
At about 2am I headed back to my hotel and before I went to sleep set my alarm for 5am as I still needed to pack a bit. At 5am my alarm woke me but I decided to forgo a shower and take an extra 20 minutes in bed, so I reset my alarm and went back to sleep...
I woke up again at 7am, my flight was at 9am. I threw my things together and headed downstairs as fast as I could.
"Did a shuttle bus call for me. Would no one have thought of calling my room", I started at the receptionist, knowing full well what was coming.
"klakbedabiakkliajhiehiuhe ihekiuhaeikujhihl xiluhxauihliu!"
"I'm late for my flight, could you order me a taxi?"
"Tacsi IUiudhfoiih awekeoiuh asoiuhelkuh liusehriuh"
They wouldn't call me a taxi - I had to give them my Irish mobile.
"Do you realise how much that is going to cost me, you dick?", I smiled at the half-wit.
As I've mentioned previously there is a constant traffic jam in Istanbul. 7am is is no excpetion this and I found myself in the middle of the morning high-rush. I sat in the taxi for 2 hours as we crawled through the city.
When we eventually arrived, I threw whatever Lira I still had at the taxi driver and ran into the airport. Slowly through the security check just to get into the airport and finally up to the monitors - my flight was boarding. I frantically searched for the Air France desk.
Luckily enough my flight tickets were transferable, something I didn't know previously, and I was put on the next flight back to Paris.
I found a bench to sleep on for three hours, until it was time to board. My third visit to Turkey in one year was over and there was a strange mixture of sadness but mainly relief that I wouldn't be back for at least another year.
Oh, the memories...
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Turkish Delight: Epilogue - Getting out of Dodge
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
again!! do Allstar do alarm clocks?
And why did you not stay with Trevor?
Trevor did offer several times but the hotel was so handy for the venue and that was my number one priority for the weekend. On the last night, all my gear was still unpacked over on the Asian side. I suppose in hindsight the most sensible thing would have been to bring all my gear over to Trevor's and stay there (much closer to the airport). Ah well, if I go back next year I might make the shuttle - third times a charm.
Post a Comment