The Long Journey Home with an Unwanted Souvenir!

It sure says something - and nothing good - when it's taken me over two weeks since I got home for me to finally get around to writing my last blog.  To back up, I spent two nights in Izmir as Atahan's guest before heading to Istanbul to overnight near the airport before I flew home on November 8th.  It worked out well as I had been fighting a dry cough and fatigue so just relaxing in his flat while he ran some errands was perfect.  It was becoming clear to me that perhaps an 18-day road trip covering over 4000 km had been a bit too ambitious.  In fact, we cut the road trip short by 2 days which turned out to be a good thing.  

One bonus I like when I'm travelling is to link up with local people as it is always interesting to see inside their homes and and get a sense of how they live.  Atahan's flat is where he grew up as it has been in his family for years.  Of course, he has renovated it and put his own "fingerprint", so to speak, on it.  His preference is antique furniture and, as well, there are treasures everywhere his bought during his travels.  I particularly liked some of the sculptures he has.

For our last evening, we went to a restaurant on Izmir's seafront for dinner.  As usual, the table was heaving with all sorts of things to try but I was really not feeling that great and only nibbled on a few of the dishes.  The one thing that has shocked me during my time in this country is the price of wine in restaurants.  I had been drinking a dry white Turkish wine that I enjoyed but it was always around $75 CAD in restaurants.  Of course, that meant between that and the Raki that Atahan likes to drink, our dinner bill was usually over $200 CAD which was always a shock after France where dinner were a fraction of that.  

The following morning, he drove me to Izmir airport where I took a flight to Istanbul.  I had booked an airport hotel there and I picked one specifically because it had a restaurant.  I took a shuttle from the airport which I had arranged in advance.  It was in interesting system.  The hotel had sent me a photo of which exit to use and to find a specific counter (it turned out not to be a counter but a placard).  From there someone met me and then I followed him the the parking garage.  There was a steady stream of vans arriving and I just had to wait until someone called my name and get in.  The drive to the hotel took about 35 minutes in fairly heavy traffic.  The hotel was located in a neighbourhood which was clearly very conservative - typically western Turkey is not particularly conservative and more "western" than in the east.  Clearly, this neighbourhood with at least 4 mosques and almost all the women walking on the streets were wearing abayas.  The hotel itself was lovely and the guy at the desk spoke good English and was very helpful.  The hotel itself did not have a kitchen to the restaurant was really not much more that an area in the lobby with tables and chairs.  The menu (see below for samples of it) was from a nearby place and when I ordered my dinner (cheese pide - Turkish flatbread with cheese) was delivered from that establishment.  What I didn't expect was that the restaurant was "dry" - we had encountered lots of alcohol-free hotels and bars in the east but I wasn't expecting one near the airport.  In a way it didn't matter as I had to be back at the airport before 6 am the next day so I booked a 5 am shuttle.  It all wasn't exactly what I had imagined my last evening to be like.  My image was a lovely restaurant with a western-style meal with a glass of nice wine.  

The shuttle arrived on the dot of 5 am (the cost was 25 euros for one way but the return was free) and I shared the shuttle with a couple from Edmonton who were heading home to their snow-covered home.  As the traffic was so much lighter at 5am, we were at the airport by 5:20 and I was through security (two sets - one when you enter the airport and another more thorough one as you pass through to the departures terminal), dripped my bags and went through passport control in less that 25 minutes.  So, i had a bit of a wait for my flight to Heathrow - the first leg of my 26 hour door-to-door journey to get home.  The 4 hours flight was pretty uneventful (except for my dry cough which was embarrassing).  The only thing worth mentioning is that there was a teenager sitting beside me.  He spoke a little English so, as we started to talk, he told me he lived in Ankara and plays defence for the Turkish national junior ice hockey team.  I have to say I would never have bet my last conversation on this trip with a Turkish citizen was going to be about hockey and how he told me his 17 goal performance was one that was very good for a defenceman!  You just never know what you will end up talking about when you travel!

I had purchased entry to the Maple Leaf Lounge in Terminal 2 in Heathrow as I had over 3 hours before my Air Canada flight to Vancouver.  On the walk to it, I saw my first Christmas tree of the season.  Once there, I got to finally have a couple of glasses of Prosecco with some food before I left to board my flight.  The flight was pretty uneventful although I was not impressed with the fact one of the white wines offered on the flight was from Oregon.  I thought that was pretty poor on Air Canada given the political situation right now with the US and the fact there are so many European countries with excellent white wine  At least there was a Portuguese option which, of course, I chose. It took minutes to get through Customs in Vancouver and then it was just a matter of getting to YYJ and home.  I sure was glad to fall into my own bed after such a long journey.  Little did I know that was where I was going to spend the majority of the time for the next while.  That was because I didn't know the "unwanted souvenir" I'd brought back was some sort of nasty virus I'd picked up.  When I woke up the following day, I had a full blown chest cold and my body ached all over.  It was really awful and I can't remember ever being that sick before.  I didn't leave my home for the next two weeks!

I was so relieved to finally fall into my own bed!

Reflecting on my adventure, first off it was great that it went off without any glitches.  I put that down to the planning and "front-end" work I had done to make sure it would go smoothly.  In hindsight, it would probably have been better to do the road trip at the start as it was really tiring and quite a challenge changing hotels almost daily for two and a half weeks.  Finishing with a cruise might have been a better plan.  I had seen so many new places and returned to place (and people) I love so, all in all, it was perfect.  Even the weather cooperated the entire time and it was great to be able to extend my summer into November.  Now, it is a matter of making the next plan!  

The following quote I found explains my love and passion for travelling:

I travel because I need to . . . because my wild, adventurous spirit can't live according to the "norm".  I travel to regroup, to reinvent myself, to be the best me I can be, to find joy in the ordinary and peace in exploring.  I travel to be!