We just want to get home.
3.2.24
A good, but too short nights sleep before the 7.45 am alarm. Carol had been awake since 6am. I swear she’s a vampire.
She’s been so good about using her silent phone settings, I bet she can’t wait to be living alone again with no one nagging about noises and bright lights at 3am.
Good breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express and a 9am taxi to the Ibis hotel where we should have stayed on 1st Feb. Long story short, I’d ordered a kilo of coconut powder to be delivered there by Amazon. Don’t ask..
Our Iranian taxi driver was very jealous that we were off to Fethiye, he wasn’t keen on the shingle beach in Çaliş though. Small world.
Exciting package collected and off to check in. A mere 3 minutes walk into the terminal. I felt really smug that no one noticed I had 2 pieces of hand luggage and a sleep apnoea machine bag.
At the boarding gate I got told off and was told it had to be 1 piece on our Pegasus flight. The sleep machine bag doesn’t count, and I discovered it can also hold a sandwich, a drink, a small flask, a tablet, a bag of crisps and 1kg of coconut powder. After juggling all these items, to all go on the same plane, I was boiling hot. The rest of my back pack scrunched into my cabin bag, I managed to get the suitcase lid down and zipped up.
Pheww.
Boarded and only a few minutes late taking off. It feels like an eternity since we left Turkey, we’ve no sense of time any more.
3 hours 20 to Istanbul and an hour and a quarter transfer to the domestic terminal at Sabiha Gökçen in Istanbul.
The board said gate 406A, but said gate closed beside it. Very odd. They were boarding people to Trabzon and I assumed they would then do our Dalaman flight afterwards. After a while Carol went off to look at the board. Our flight was now boarding at gate 207!!
She ran ahead as by now I had a bursting at the seams cabin bag, a heavy sleep apnoea bag, and a bottle of Malibu and Baileys in a sealed plastic bag with a handle threatening to break at any time. Carol had the right idea taking a large hold case.
We made it, there were still plenty of people behind us.
My card didn’t work in the Pegasus drinks paypad because it didn’t have a chip. The guy sitting at the aisle seat offered to buy it for me, but I had cash, so no problem apart from them charging more for cash, very odd. We really have met so many lovely people along the way.
Airport bus from Dalaman, then John picked me up in Gunlukbasi near Fethiye.
The dogs were super excited to see me. There’s no place like home.
I wonder if I’ll ever stop my body from thinking I’m still on a windy plane or bus, tram or train?
So was it all worth it and was my feeling that I’d hate Lapland correct?
No, I was totally wrong, we had a blast and absolutely loved it. I was totally out of my comfort zone, Carol’s an adrenaline junkie, she did a brilliant job of persuading me to give everythng a go.
It was fabulous, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this trip.
