Met with the group at the airport and
when our guide made sure we had all arrived we were brought to our own check-in
booth. Luxury! But it’s pure guesswork if the dedicated booth was to make it
easier for us or to protect everyone else. Despite spending a night in Istanbul
we decided to check in our luggage all the way to Van to make it easier for
everyone. Ahem… “easier”.
Departure went fine – 3 hour flight with
inflight entertainment and full meal – but arriving in Istanbul our problems
started. Someone in the group had read in the inflight magazine that if you
have a lay-over and continue to another domestic airport you have to grab your
luggage and manually get it back into the system – despite checking it in all
the way from the beginning. Our guide got hold of one of the airport staff and
20 minutes after everyone else and at a different belt we got our bags. Well –
“we” as in 12 out of 14 people in the group. After a lot of discussing with the
lost and found office (I counted at least 4 of them when in the airport) we had
to accept that two of us would be leaving empty handed. 2/14 – great
statistics, Turkish Airlines!
The rest of us went to the domestic
terminal and after having been forwarded around 3-4 times the staff informed us
that they did not want to take our bags because they did not want the
responsibility of holding them over night. What? Despite having already checked
them in all the way.
We left for our bus and after an hour
long drive we arrived at our hotel, 2-3 delayed. We checked in, greeted another
group member who had arrived earlier, and then we left for dinner. We ended up
at a nice local restaurant, and during dinner one of the guys who had lost his
luggage got a call from what his phone said was Miami, Florida. He couldn’t
hear anything before they hung up. Time-wise that could have been somebody
finding his bag coming out of a plane.
Before getting back to the hotel we had
a short walk by the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia which were just nearby.
Couldn’t really get a good shot of Hagia Sophia but the Blue Mosque was
beautifully illuminated in the dark.
The Blue Mosque
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