Today's post: "THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE".

Also subtitled: STUCK IN SIVAS, TRAPPED IN TURKEY!!!

You know what, since I left home to strike out on my own 3 months ago, I've learnt a lot of lessons. Don't drink the tap water. Never eat doner from a small hole in the wall restaurant at 9 pm at night. Don't drink too much tea or you'll never stop peeing. Always walk with wet naps and napkins in your purse. Don't give you number to strangers. Bargain with store owners. Never expect a Turkish driver to stop for you on the road. And if you absolutely MUST catch an intransit international flight to London which you booked online and is therefore non-refundable and non-exchangeable, don't rely on the worst airline in the world -- ATLAS JET -- or a tiny little domestic airport high up in the Sivas mountains to get you there!



I was so excited and ready to go to London. I went to sleep the night before to get my beauty rest, woke up bright and early and shaved my legs, flossed my teeth, double checked that I had packed everything I needed, and walked through the biting Sivas morning to the Atlas Jet office where they kindly provided a shuttle service to the Sivas Domestic Airport.

It was snowing outside, but it was a light snow so I didn't worry about it. But when the bus to the airport didn't show up on time, I got a sinking feeling in my tummy. I asked someone in the office what was going on, and they told her there was a 50/50 chance that the flight would be cancelled. I swallowed the lump in my throat and had a silent heart attack. I just KNEW it was gonna happen. I was gonna get stuck in fucking Sivas.

So said, so done! They cancelled the only flight out of the city. Everyone shook their head and simply got their refund from the office and went on their merry way, having arranged a back-up transportation plan. Apparently this shit must happen ALL THE TIME because I was clearly the most upset person there!

As I stood at the ticket counter mumbling in English waiting for my ticket refund on the verge of tears, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and a tall man asked in English if he could help me. I explained my plight to him and showed him my travel plans, and he says quite simply, 'Well my friends are I are going to drive to Kayseri and then catch a flight to Istanbul... you can come with us! We leave in ten minutes.' With that he gave me his phone number and said if I wanted to go with him, to meet him back at the office in 10 minutes.

Now any right thinking woman who has read a newspaper or watched any kind of TV docudrama knows that a situation like that sounds like the beginning of a show where the police find her body tied up and stranged and raped at the bottom of a dirty ditch, and the police say, 'It appears she was hitchiking... I guess she got in the wrong car with the wrong people'.

It was not an ideal option, so I put my backpag on my bag and began walking home at the speed of light to get to an internet cafe to figure out what the hell do to. But halfway there I got this feeling that if I went home, I would spend the next five days crying in my apartment, certainly not in London, and very, very far away from my Chad.

I stood in the falling snow, looked up at the sky, and asked the heavens or whoever it is up there who looks after young ladies in desperate situations, took out my phone and called the dudes who offered me a ride. Four of them pulled up in a Ford Focus, put my bags in the trunk, and ushered me into their car, and we headed through the snowcapped mountains of Central Anatolia to the city and domestic airport of Kayseri.



Now this is where the real luck comes in -- maybe there really is someone up there who looks out for lost Trinis in Turkey who are trying to get to their man! The driver of the car asks me what my travel plans were, and I tell him my itinerary, and that it was very likely that I was going to miss my Lufthansa flight from Istanbul to London. 'Lufthansa?' he says from the driver's seat, 'my sister works at ticketing for Lufthansa in Istanbul! Let me give her a call.'

I swear it truly was the most amazing incredible stupendous wonderful coicidence or miracle with the guy's sister because if he hadn't said that, I really truly do think I never would have made it to London.

We arrived in Kayseri, bought another domestic flight to Istanbul, and went out for iftar to break the fast. During the car ride I found out that all of the guys were doing their military service in Sivas at the military hospital. One was a surgeon, one a general practicioner, one a dentist, and one a doctor of infectious diseases. He had a good laugh when I told him about my delicious tap water parasite. By the time we sat down to eat I had stopped fretting and realised I was actually having fun, even though all my travel plans had gone to shit and nothing had gone according to plan.

The Kayseri airport was for some reason full of Korean tourists. We killed about three hours reading the English Turkish newspapers and chatting. I educated them about Trinidad and Tobago, mainly. They bitched about how much they hate Sivas and can't wait to finish their military service so that they could move back to Istanbul!

The doctor's sister from the airline called with good news. The good news was that she got me on to the next flight to London... but the bad news was that the flight was not until 5.30 am the next day. I was not too happy about losing more than 12 hours of travel time. My original flight was supposed to arrive Wednesday night at 10 pm. This flight would get me to London at 10 am on Thursday. But it was my best option, and I was eternally grateful for her help.

Now spending 8 hours in the Istanbul airport was not ideal, but it simply had to be done. By the time I got to Chad -- 12 hours late, exhausted, hungry, and extremely stinky and sweaty and gormy and nasty -- I was happy to just be IN London.



Above -- Chad's neighborhood, Muswell Hill in Northern London.



We did some excellent sightseeing in downtown London... Soho, Chinatown, Leicester Square, lots of beautiful parks and old architecture, funky stores and yummy Thai restaurants, and of course you can't go to London and not have a PINT in the PUB! And London has lots of beautiful statues and squares and so on. Very pretty.



Chad about to get his hand bite off.



The beautiful Tower Bridge



We saw all the major sites -- River Thames, Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Tower of London. Here at the Tower of London Chad feels he has a big gun....



But MY gun is BIGGER! Har har!!



And last but not least, the happy couple, reunited and it feels so good. It was a day of absolute hell to GET to London, but for even four short days of heaven, it was totally worth it.



All's well that ends well, right!

:)