Well, some of you may know that we are in Chicago for a visit, what most of you don't know is how long it took us to get here :-) Well, we left Israel on 7/23 in the AM heading to Ohare via Istanbul (Turkish air lines) We were supposed to arrive that day in the early afternoon... Supposed to... In reality, well, we ended up spending 48 hours in Istanbul, not by choice :-(. You see, well, 3 of us were travelling with expired American passports (Maya, Lior & I)We did have valid Israeli passports and proof of American citizenship for all of us, I thought that was plenty... They agreed in Israel were we originated, but, well, the Turks were a bit over zealous when it comes to home land security... suffice it to say the three f us were denied boarding. Danielle, the only one travelling with 2 valid passports decided to board the flight on her own, OK, OK, I did encourage her, she was very upset about not being able to fly, and I was a little concerned about not being able to find seats for all 4 of us on the next flight, I figured the fewer we were the better our chances... Some used the words brave, others chose different adjectives to describe my choice here but hey... She flew, on her own, (granted she had four seats, quite a commodity in today's market) and proved that it can be done.
We found ourselves stranded, with $270, a few expired American credit cards, and an Israeli credit card which I wasn't sure was worth anything outside of Israel (it was...). Maya was very upset for two very good reasons, 1 we were denied boarding, 2. Danielle was on her way... I thought we could make this an adventure, we opened our bags, packed a small bag to take along and headed over to leave our luggage at the "left luggage" so we wouldn't have to shlep around with it for the next 48 hours (until the next flight). We packed swimsuits (hey, hotel, pool, right? WRONG!!) and walked over to discover that the charge would amount to about $50 a day, CASH no credit cards... Quick calculations brought on the realization that we would be spending about 40% of our funds, didn't seem like such a bright idea... So shlep everything we did... next step was the hotel desk, we needed one, CHEAP... 90 Euros? a night? that's about $115 right? is this the cheapest (YES) is the pool nice? POOL???? laugh, that would cost a minimum of 160 euros a night...oh well, no pool I guess.... Don't worry girls we'll have fun... get to the hotel, ($25) drop off luggage, get a cab to the American embassy ($30) wait... talk to some one... I need what? a fax from my husband permitting me to issue passports to my minor daughter? notarized? hummm it's 6AM in Chicago, I wonder how he will react to the phone call waking him up and filling him in on the fact that the 3 of us are in Turkey while his almost 9 year old is flying solo... NOT WELL??? (BIG understatement....) well 3 hours later we walk out of the embassy with 3 emergency passports (good for 1 year, I have to renew those UGHHH) and a new friend, a college student who was there to get an emergency passport because she was going to Israel and did not want her regular passport stamped :-) Well, Alexa showed us how to eat and travel CHEAP in Istanbul :-) we took one more cab to the hotel, but after that it was trains all around to the airport to arrange our flight (2 more hours the next morning, and $500...) downtown to visit the blue masque, authentic restaurants where we dined on lentil soup and bread (cheap and very filling). we managed to arrive in Chicago 48 hours later with some change !!! not much but some! I was proud! why focus on what brought us to Istanbul, focus on the experience and the fact that we managed so well!!!
SO what did we learn... ck your passports, and don't trust things to work out (although they will, maybe just a bit differently than you expect :-)) Carry cash!!! Istanbul is a place to go back to, but without kids and much more money!!!
Happy travelling,
love,
Ronit
