Continuing from my entry A fog bound Gaziantep, Turkey earlier today, at 19:00 hours I am still traveling.
I arrived at Gaziantep airport this morning at 9:30am and waited for two hours in the airport departures, hearing various announcements, all in Turkish, well it is Turkey what should I expected , and race around trying to get translations, only to find out at 1pm that all flights had been canceled because of the fog or mist.
What do I do now?
Keep calm, put a smile on my face and happiness in my heart, and place my attention at Hara, Fred, Antonio, Mustapha, Siri Parla, be strong, because I knew there would be a scrum, a fight to get to the re ticketing desk, and sure enough, there was.
The British are famous for a number of things, not being able to speak another language other than English, fish and chips, and queuing.
If there are more than two people standing behind each other, the British will join the queue, they may not know what they are waiting for, but they join the queue.
Now, if anyone jumps the queue, gets out of line, pushes in, they will be in trouble. The best place to see this in action is on the “Drain”, London’s Bank underground line. It has only two stations, Waterloo and The Bank. It is very civilised, every one lines up correctly, and there is no pushing or shoving.
But that is London, in other countries there is no queuing system, first come first served, get in there first.
The trouble is I am British. I can be first in the queue and before I know it I am last, somehow, I do not know how, in an airport, the whole flight is in front of me, I can be first off the plane, get to passport control, but still be last threw.
And so it proved to be today, even though I did my best to stay in front, I was one of the last to be sorted out. The only thing for me to do was to get a flight from Adana, and Turkish Airways would not get me there, I would have to make my own way, or catch the next days flight.
The harassed Turkish Airlines check in clerk, did her best, but would not answer my questions as to how I was going to get to Adana, but she said I had a 19:00 hr flight. OK, smile, keep strong, I found a coach going to Adana airport, a three hour journey, and I thought for free. No way, once I was captured on the coach, on its’ journey, I had to pay 15 Turkish Lira. No problem, it will not break the bank.
With nothing to do, I looked at the re routing documents, written in Turkish, Oh Poo Poo, my flight is due to take off at 22:15 hrs, that means a 23:30 hours arrival In Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, then, a trip into the center of Istanbul to my hotel.
What a long day. I could be eating a great meal in Istanbul with friends.
I think I need a holiday. Who say travel is glamorous?
Perhaps Turkish Airlines should compensate me? I doubt it, not even a drink was offered, great customer service, good job I have access to the CIP lounge to write this blog.
I arrived at Gaziantep airport this morning at 9:30am and waited for two hours in the airport departures, hearing various announcements, all in Turkish, well it is Turkey what should I expected , and race around trying to get translations, only to find out at 1pm that all flights had been canceled because of the fog or mist.
What do I do now?
Keep calm, put a smile on my face and happiness in my heart, and place my attention at Hara, Fred, Antonio, Mustapha, Siri Parla, be strong, because I knew there would be a scrum, a fight to get to the re ticketing desk, and sure enough, there was.
The British are famous for a number of things, not being able to speak another language other than English, fish and chips, and queuing.
If there are more than two people standing behind each other, the British will join the queue, they may not know what they are waiting for, but they join the queue.
Now, if anyone jumps the queue, gets out of line, pushes in, they will be in trouble. The best place to see this in action is on the “Drain”, London’s Bank underground line. It has only two stations, Waterloo and The Bank. It is very civilised, every one lines up correctly, and there is no pushing or shoving.
But that is London, in other countries there is no queuing system, first come first served, get in there first.
The trouble is I am British. I can be first in the queue and before I know it I am last, somehow, I do not know how, in an airport, the whole flight is in front of me, I can be first off the plane, get to passport control, but still be last threw.
And so it proved to be today, even though I did my best to stay in front, I was one of the last to be sorted out. The only thing for me to do was to get a flight from Adana, and Turkish Airways would not get me there, I would have to make my own way, or catch the next days flight.
The harassed Turkish Airlines check in clerk, did her best, but would not answer my questions as to how I was going to get to Adana, but she said I had a 19:00 hr flight. OK, smile, keep strong, I found a coach going to Adana airport, a three hour journey, and I thought for free. No way, once I was captured on the coach, on its’ journey, I had to pay 15 Turkish Lira. No problem, it will not break the bank.
With nothing to do, I looked at the re routing documents, written in Turkish, Oh Poo Poo, my flight is due to take off at 22:15 hrs, that means a 23:30 hours arrival In Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, then, a trip into the center of Istanbul to my hotel.
What a long day. I could be eating a great meal in Istanbul with friends.
I think I need a holiday. Who say travel is glamorous?
Perhaps Turkish Airlines should compensate me? I doubt it, not even a drink was offered, great customer service, good job I have access to the CIP lounge to write this blog.