We woke up early Friday morning to leave Istanbul and return to Western Europe. We had pre-arranged a transfer for 7:30am; our flight left at 10:30. The guy was a few minutes late, but that was okay. However, the van he had could barely go about 20 km/hr without shaking and he didn’t seem too keen to driving it. We stopped in front of the train station (on the old European side of the city). He told us we’d be there for five minutes, which was NOT okay with us, but there was nothing we could say/do. Anyway, five minutes later a bigger van arrived and we go into that one and sped off to the airport. The airport we were using (the one in Asia) was pretty sketchy. We got there at 8:45 for a 10 am flight. As soon as we arrived, we got in the line that said “London Stansted.” Check-in was taking forever. We’re not really sure why. As soon as we queued, we could hear announcements that our flight should go through immigration. Then, more announcements about how we should be going through security. People didn’t seem to be rushing anywhere and we were still stuck in this line (which wasn’t even that long). Finally we checked-in and headed toward immigration where we had to wait on another short line. (Note: the lines were short everywhere, but took forever.) We could see security and the four gates as soon as we stepped through immigration. The airport was really tiny. We boarded our plane and took off (late) for London.
Upon arriving in London, we attempted to disembark, but were told to remain seated. The British immigration police had boarded our plane and were questioning two young Turkish guys a few rows ahead of me. The guys had no clue what was going on and finally the police asked if anyone else had been sitting in that row. The British tourists around the row told the police that a man had just changed seats and was now sitting a few rows ahead. The police located him, took one look at his passport and got him off the plane. As we filed off the plane, we had to show our passports to police officers before heading toward the airport terminal.
Once near immigration, I powered-walked ahead to get through before the Turkish passengers. Jess split off from me and headed towards the EU lines, which are always longer, but move faster. I was a bit worried because I didn’t have an address in the UK and had written that I would be in the country for 12 hours. In Glasgow I had to answer more questions, but here in London, the guy didn’t seem to care.
We got our bags and took a bus to Victoria Coach Station. There were tons of Spanish people on the bus and it was hilarious (for me) to listen to their comments. They thought the Tower of London was someone’s house. Once at Victoria, we went to a health food store where I stocked up on cookies, rice cakes, soy milk, ginger chews, and other snack foods. Then we went to Sainsbury’s Local and I bought salsa, salad and marshmallows. Finally we headed back to the coach station and ate our lunch/dinner/snacks.
I had to use the bathroom at the coach station but didn’t have any sterling to pay for it. I took some Euros and asked the attendant if I could use them. She was somewhat amused by my request and demanded to know why I didn’t have sterling. I told her that I was just passing through London. She wanted the details of my trip and was confused as to why I would go to Turkey if I wasn’t Turkish. She enjoyed hearing the details of my trip and told me I could just push through the wheelchair gate. I was really happy I asked first and didn’t just jump the turnstile, because as I was using the bathroom I could hear her yelling at someone for having done that.
We boarded our bus and I promptly passed out. We arrived at the ferry port in Portsmouth a few hours later where we checked in for our boat. There were tons of people waiting to board a two-night ferry to Bilbao including a bachelorette party who practically boarded with their glasses of beer. There were also several school groups and an American student tour in the waiting area. We missed the announcement to board the boat and were confused when the waiting room was suddenly empty. There were two boats leaving at the same time and many of the passengers were out with their cars. I went for a walk around the room and asked some guys in yellow vests. At this point, it was about 10:15 at night and I had been awake since 6:30 Turkish time (4:30 UK time). They thought it was hilarious that I seemed pretty blasé that most of our boat had boarded. We did, in fact, have plenty of time. They weren’t closing the boarding gate for another 30 minutes. Also, we weren’t the last people on the boat. When we walked over to the gate, a group of ten people stood up and followed us there.
The boat was really nice. It’s an overnight ferry (and it gets used on other overnight lines) so there were cabins for people with money. We were sitting in the reclining seat lounge, as opposed to the groups who had airplane seats. The seats were comfortable, but I would have preferred sleeping on the floor, which many people were doing. (There were a lot of people who clearly take this boat often: they brought sleeping bags, mats and pillows and knew exactly where the best couches and floor space could be found.) There was a bar, an arcade room, a nice restaurant, a buffet, a cafeteria, shops and two movie rooms. There were also several decks and lookout areas. We didn’t really use any of those spaces and just went to sleep.
In France, we had to go through immigration. The guy who took my passport had some difficulty finding space to stamp it. He made a comment about my liking to travel and let me into the country. Then we took a bus from Oistream to Caen where we had hired a rental car. We arrived in Caen 40 minutes before the agency opened, so we waited in the train station. Our car was a Ford C-Max, a little four-door with awful blind spots. We had a difficult time getting out of Caen – I’m pretty sure I was in the taxi/bus lane for a while by the station, but it was 8:30 on a sleepy Saturday, so it didn’t matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment