The No Good Very Bad Rainy Day - Turkey Part I

I had to blog about this day because I didn't want to forget it.  Our flight to our destination in Turkey seemed uneventful according to the itinerary we printed up from the airlines.  We would have a 2 hour layover in Istanbul and truthfully I was excited about it.  Not that I would see any of Istanbul, but it was fun to say we would be there, even if for a few hours.  But if I had to say whether I would go back to that airport, after our first connection experience there, I would've said no way!  

It all started when we landed in Istanbul.  We got off our plane and were intent on finding the immigration area, the one we were supposed to buy our Visas from.  We asked a man who worked there, which one to do first...Customs or Visa.  He said Customs.  But, as we waited longer and longer in the Customs line, we saw our connecting flight flash "Last Call" on the monitor.  Yeah, a little bit of panic set in at this point.  We got to the window, anxious to go through, and the Passport Man says, "Where's your visa?"  We told him we thought we were supposed to do that after Customs.  Nope.  So, he sent us to another window far to the left to purchase our Visa Stickers.  We did that as fast as humanly possible, than ran back (despite a few "heys...excuse me...you can't cut...") to the same Customs window, and the Passport Man sent us through.

Then we began our run to the Domestic Terminal.  Yeah, that wasn't fun.  Dave was WAY ahead of me, as I moved my pregnant body as fast as I could, thinking that if I run move any faster, I foresee early labor right here and now in this terminal.

We arrived at our gate after huffing and puffing and saw that our flight was delayed!!  And not only our flight was delayed, but all the other ones before and after as well.  Apparently the weather was so bad- rainy, windy, and foggy, that they weren't allowing any planes to land.  So, this was when the real fun began.

We waited in the hot (anyone who was there can attest that it was not just pregnancy - it was HOT) terminal and waited, and waited and waited some more.   

Then a couple of hours later, we were told to go to another gate, so we did.  Then we were told to go back, so we did.  Then we were told nothing.  And it got later and later.  Eventually I found myself laying on the cold concrete of the airport terminal floor, and it felt good.

And we waited some more.

Chaos was all around us.  People wanted answers - nobody had them.

Eventually a man, who I had been convinced worked at the airport but came to find out was just a passenger like us, told everyone that if we had any hope in flying out tonight, that we needed to rebook our tickets.

So, we went out of security, to the ticket counter, and mayhem had already ensued.  People were yelling, a group of angry passengers were escorted from the ticket counter.  We waited patiently with another family at a very nice ticket counter, and remained calm.  And we think this may have helped us get our tickets onto what was the last flight to leave the airport that night.

We ran to now an even different gate and waited with the chaotic group of angry passengers, all shoving and pushing there way to the gate, hoping to get on this flight.  Finally, an airline worker came and tried to make some order, but it wasn't possible.  Luckily, we waited near the gate entrance and were able to be some of the first on that plane.  One of the funny things about our no good very bad rainy day was that our new re-booked seat assignments brought us to "Business Class"!  We had our own computers, which didn't phase me b/c I was way too tired to look at it, but JJ liked it.  And our seats reclined, which was sooo nice.  The problem was that so many peoples' seats were double-booked, and the mayhem continued as angry people were moved from their seats and other angry people didn't have seats.

We stayed quiet and calm in our seats and I kept thinking, "Nobody is going to pry this tired pregnant body from this amazing comfortable seat."  And luckily no one had to.

Finally we took off around 2 a.m. and arrived in Baggage Claim around 3:30 a.m.  But the chaos had followed us.

With so many canceled, delayed and re-booked flights, the bags were everywhere, no system, no plan, and no bags could be found...at first.

We were the last of the families (who had been through this ordeal together) to find our 1 bag around 4:45 a.m., and finally we were off to our destination.

After a very hot and sticky tour bus ride to our hotel, we finally landed and arrived in our room at 5:30 a.m., totally and utterly exhausted.

Here were some amazing blessings of the night though:

• We found out the 1st of the flights to be let out of the airport that night was horrible.  Our friends were on that flight and literally my friend prayed aloud for 20 minutes, thinking they were going down.  I vaguely remembered the word in the terminal was that IF this first plane landed, they would send more.  We were the last of the 3 they sent out.  And for those out there who know how much I hate to fly, well, you know I wouldn't have done well on that 1st flight. 
• JJ, after running around like a happy (by "happy" I mean completely giddy from being over-tired!) mad man in the airport, finally crashed at 1:00 a.m. and continued to crash, even through the rest of the craziness.  I wish I had taken a picture of him on the baggage claim floor, sprawled out, totally asleep on the make-shift bed I made for him (which was Dave's jacket and my sweater). There amid the lights, mayhem, yelling, kids crying, people frantically looking for bags, was JJ sleeping peacefully. 
• The Istanbul airport terminal had a Starbucks!  BONUS!  I'll never forget drinking that decaf iced vanilla latte in the 100 degree terminal!  
• The most important thing - we actually arrived and arrived safely, very very exhausted, but safely.