Life is made up of ying and yang and we just had a big bite of the ying and yang sandwich.
After our tour of Cappadocia ended, the tour guide and his driver took us to the airport about an hour away. They played some violent movie where every other word was of the four letter variety on the overhead movie screen in the van. Since we had hiked and since we had late flights to content with, we wanted to sleep. Fat chance.
We had a flight back to Istanbul that left about 8 p.m. and a connecting flight to Izmir that was scheduled for 11:45 p.m. We were to arrive in Izmir at 12:50 a.m. Both flights were late and we did not arrive until almost 2 a.m. Then there was an hour long trip to our hotel in Kusadasi. We checked in at 3 a.m. Ouch. We got to our room, threw our clothes off, rinsed off the Cappadocia “fairy sand” we were covered in and crashed as we had an 8:30 pick up for a tour. I know. Crazy.
At 6:45 a.m. the Rayman woke me up when he said, “Dianna, We have bed bugs.” It took me about a nano second to roust myself out of a deep sleep and literally jump out of bed. “BED BUGS. I’m not staying here.” The Rayman agreed and after an inspection by the hotel management, we went after a shower down to the lobby to start complaining. The long and short of it is that the Rayman ended up in the front lobby registration desk having a very “direct conversation” with the OneNation the tour company on the hotel’s telephone. “No. If you would stop talking and listen to me” , he continued. As the man on the other end of the phone tried to terminate the tour by refunding us for the hotel in Istanbul two days from now and refunding us our valet service, the Rayman had a different idea. Pretty soon, any one in the lobby could hear him say, “Excuse me. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable…the first place you booked us had mold. This place has bed bugs. We want another hotel.”
About a half an hour later I was on the computer seeing if there was a way to return to NYC earlier, a man came in and said he was there to move us to another hotel. And off we went to a much better hotel with a balcony overlooking the Aegean Sea and with a distinct absence of bedbugs… so far. Our bed clothes are in a plastic bag, the bags have been inspected for the vile creatures and we’ve spent the day trying to leave Turkey… then trying to stay in Turkey.
As of now we have negotiated two extra nights at this hotel, rescheduled our tour of Ephesus for tomorrow, and return transportation to Izmir. We decided it was harder to leave early than it is to stay. Turkish Air would not reschedule the flight back to Istanbul without talking to the tour operator who booked the flight. The tour company found us a flight but it was another “midnight express”. With only 3 1/2 hours of sleep, we just couldn’t warm up to that idea. So. There you have it.
Observations: The Rayman and I have had a chance to travel by making all our reservations on previous trips. And we had a tour where they made all the plans. We never have been lost using this tour company but the mold and bed bugs episodes have us abandoning the idea of using tour companies in future travels. It hasn’t worked out, this tour company idea.
Oh, and did you know that these late night one hour flights are filled up with crying babies? It’s a flying nursery and you cannot sleep. One mother walked the aisle with her screaming child in her arms the entire flight. Another sat still but the child wailed away for 3/4 of the flight…in the middle of the night. OMG. Really, when they pre-board, half the plane is filled up by mothers and their children. The Rayman thinks they just live by a different clock here. Whatever. It’s much different than the U.S. generally.
The big ship just blew it’s horn. There is a Viking cruise ship (upright) moored here. They are on their way out so the city will be quieter tonight when we venture out to find a place to eat. It is warm and a bit muggy. The sea is sparkling. Quite charming, really.
And the tour guide tomorrow is the same nice fellow that delivered us to our second hotel this a.m. Did I mention he isn’t hard to look at? Perhaps things are looking up.
Oh, and the water heater has been installed. I learned how to use FaceTime at midnight in the airport at Istanbul. Our realtor, Tim, taught me how to do it and we had a good conversation. Amazing. So, Beau is returning to our house with Nancy and Ginger since the house is fully functioning again. Now all we have to do is figure out where on earth we are going to live in the future…both near and far (term). I can tell you one thing. It won’t be in Turkey. We have really enjoyed 95% of this country. And our dollar would go a very long way. The food is wonderful. But, we won’t be moving here. Perhaps Morro Bay or San Luis or Avila or Paso!!! Yes, that’s more to our liking.
Before I forget, the Turks have the best tow trucks we have ever seen. They only work on cars that are parked parallel but they are amazing. They drive up to the side of car. Two L shaped arms slide down and under the offending the car. Then it lifts the car up and on to the bed of the truck. The truck driver doesn’t even have to get out of truck as far as we could see. Never seen anything like it. It would work great in San Francisco and other large cities with narrow streets.
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