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Türkiye 2021

September - December 2021
Our trip to Turkey this year is set for 4 months ... give or take a few days so that we can make up for family time lost in 2019-2020 due to COVID-19. Read more
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  • Türkiye 2021

    Kâmil Koç to Güvercinlik

    August 15, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

    Işıl — Mui’s sister — has a beach house in Güvercinlik, a village near Bodrum … in Turkey’s Muğla Province. Mui and I will be taking a bus from İzmir to spend a few days with her there in September. The three of us will drive back to İzmir in her car. The plan is for her to spend a few days in İzmir and then Mui will drive her home to Eskişehir. He’ll probably stay with her for a bit, but for how long and all that is TBD.

    Hence the reason we needed to get HES codes today.

    Armed with the code, we got online to buy our bus tickets. Our preferred bus company — Pamukkale Turizm — had only one bus daily. Turns out they are in Chapter 11 and have cut back on their services. Instead, we booked with Kâmil Koç … which is now a partner of FlixBus, a German brand that offers bus service not only in Europe, but in the US as well.

    Long story short, we selected our departure date and time; filled in the necessary passenger information, including our ID and HES code numbers; and even pre-selected our seats … the first ones to do so on our departure … not surprising as Turks don’t plan their travels as far out as we do. It took us no more than 5 minutes to complete the purchase.

    So, we now have the first of what may be several short trips in Turkey planned.    Read more

  • Türkiye 2021

    Entry & Re-Entry PCR Testing

    August 19, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    The good news? If you are fully-vaccinated, Turkey no longer requires PCR testing 72-hours ahead of entry into the country. That’s a huge relief.

    As for re-entry into the US in January … good news on that front as well. No, the requirement for a PCR test has not been abolished, but the guidelines call for the test to be taken within 3 days of one’s flight. And the CDC example on their website does not count the day of travel. That means that for our 2 January flight, we can get tested on 30 December … which is a Thursday. With so many labs providing testing in Turkey, not to mention testing centers at the airport, we won’t have to worry about purchasing an at-home test kit to take with us.Read more

  • Türkiye 2021

    Inbound Fligts: Sch & Equipment Change

    August 28, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Mui got a text from Turkish Airlines last night. It was advising us of a schedule change to the domestic portion of our 2 January flights from İzmir to Houston. Same flight number, but an earlier departure from ADB ... and a slightly later arrival @ IST. No matter, still plenty of time to connect to our afternoon flight to IAH.

    THY requires confirmation from the passenger whenever there is a change. We tried to do this online and through the app. Both gave error messages. So we made a phone call and spoke to an agent. In no time at all, our online flight record showed the revised flight info.

    I'm not sure what prompted me to ask that the agent confirm our selected seats as well. When it came to our IST-IAH flight, she said our seats were 4A/5A. Aha! An equipment change! And one that I was hoping would happen. TK33 was now going to be on a B787-9 … a Dreamliner, in other words.

    I’ve since gone online to switch our seats to the starboard aisle … 4K/5K … better aerial views from that side IMHO.

    We now have ten days to go before we begin this year's overseas jaunt.    Read more

  • Türkiye 2021

    Moving Up Our Departure

    August 30, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    Apparently, Mui and I have both been thinking about a “what if.” And not saying anything to each other. The “what if” was … what if our flight from COS to IAH on 6 September is delayed or canceled? Would we be able to make our flight departing IAH for IST?

    We’re not superstitious people. And if we weren’t in the midst of a pandemic, we probably would have laughed off our concerns once we voiced them during our morning walk today. But we are in the midst of a pandemic and air travel can have more bumps than usual.

    Rather than stress over the “what if,” we decided to just move our departure from COS up by a day. Thanks to an earlier schedule change, our United flight was eligible for a one-time change/cancelation at no charge to us. Why not take advantage of it?

    Step One … check flight availability for 5 September. The answer was yes.

    Step Two … verify full refund for the 6 September flight on the UA website. The answer was yes.

    Step Three … cancel the original booking. Miles refunded immediately; refund of taxes & fees pending the usual credit card cycle.

    Step Four … book the same round trip COS-IAH-COS flights with a 5 September departure; return date unchanged. The bonus … fewer miles to purchase the tickets. The second bonus … same exit row seats available on both flights.

    Step Five … book a hotel room for the overnight before our 6 September IAH-IST departure on Turkish Airlines. The bonus … a room at the Marriott at IAH … no shuttle transport required to/from the airport.

    So, our 2021 overseas jaunt will now commence a day early … and neither of us will be stressing over the “what if.”    Read more

  • Türkiye 2021

    Almost Ready

    September 4, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    I’ve got a pre-trip checklist that I use each time we go off on an adventure. It has everything on it — from what to pack, to stopping the mail, to verifying flight information, to turning off the water, to … well you get the idea. Big and small … everything is on the list.

    Added to the list this year is researching and verifying COVID-19 related entry requirements … which can be a moving target … what with the ever-changing profile of the pandemic. Luckily for us, being vaccinated has made meeting the entry requirements for Turkey easier. In fact, we just finished taking care of the last of those requirements … completing an online entry form that we printed out to hand over to THY when we check-in for our flight to IST on Monday.

    All but a few things on the checklist are now checked off. Even our bags are zippered and zip-tied. The items that remain unchecked are the last minute things that have to wait until just before we set the alarm and lock up the house.

    I guess we’re just about ready to get this show on the road … just one more sleep to go.    Read more

  • Türkiye 2021
    Day 1

    And We Begin …

    September 5, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    We turned off the water, checked the doors and windows, set the alarm, and locked up. Time to get this show on the road.

    A quick Lyft drive brought us to COS. Our local airport might be small, but it offers the convenience of a non-stop flight to IAH so that we can connect to the flight that will take us across the pond … tomorrow.

    At the moment, we’re at Gate 5 … awaiting our air-chariot. More later …    Read more

  • Türkiye 2021
    Day 1

    Our Chariot to IAH Arrives

    September 5, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    The CR-J 200 that will be taking us to IAH has landed and is approaching Gate 5. We should be boarding in the next little while … later than the original 11:18a boarding. No matter … it’s not like we don’t have plenty of time on our hands.Read more

  • Türkiye 2021
    Day 1

    Uneventful Flight

    September 5, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 91 °F

    That about describes our flight … once our winged-chariot was swapped out and we got off the ground. The problem? Too much weight for the CRJ … passengers and bags.

    At first they were looking for volunteers to jump to the next flight … with quite a generous offer that we might have taken. But then they rescinded that and found another solution. In the end, what I think happened was that they had another aircraft going to IAH, so they left the bags on the original aircraft and put us on the second one.

    Despite our delayed departure — by about 30 minutes — we were on the ground at IAH shortly after our original scheduled arrival of 3:25p.

    All’s well that ends well.    Read more

  • Türkiye 2021
    Day 1

    Checked into Marriott @ IAH

    September 5, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 95 °F

    The Houston Airport Marriott is not connected to a terminal at IAH … per se. But there is a tunnel one can use to get to it … either by taking the below-ground train that runs between the terminals and makes a stop at the Marriott … on on foot via the pedestrian walkway between the tracks that loop around. Wanting to stretch our legs, we opted to do the latter.

    By 4:30p, we were settled into our room … the airport luggage cart we used to haul the bags parked in one corner … well out of the way. Nice … clean … all the amenities we could want for an overnight stay (though we did have to ask for some hand lotion) … a partial view of the airport.

    The only hitch in our plans? Our late check out can’t be extended past 1:00p tomorrow because the hotel is booked solid. We won’t be able to check in for our THY flight until 4:00p or sometime thereafter. So we’ll have to kill time somewhere.

    No worries, though. We have a plan. We’ll check out at 1:00p, leave the bags with the concierge, and have a leisurely lunch at Flight’s Grill, the on-property restaurant, before we make our way to the appropriate terminal.    Read more

  • Türkiye 2021
    Day 1

    Dinner Time: Flights Lounge & Grill

    September 5, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 91 °F

    Once we were settled into our room, it was time to get our tummies sated. If there are any eateries in the vicinity, they require wheels to get to them. The restaurants at IAH are all after the security checkpoints. So, we went down to Flights Lounge & Grill, the restaurant at the hotel. Good food … very satisfying.

    We were both up at 5:00a this morning and we’ve since traveled some 800+ miles (as the crow flies). Time to relax a bit … and then early to bed methinks.

    ——————————————-

    For those interested in such things …

    I ordered the Rotini Pasta [creamy wild mushroom and garlic sauce, asparagus, parmesan] and topped it with grilled salmon for protein. Mui ordered the “H-Town” Cobb Salad [chopped romaine, local bacon, hard-boiled egg, grilled corn, pickled red onion, blue cheese, avocado, tomatoes, house made chipotle ranch] and added grilled salmon for extra protein. We wrapped up with a Key Lime Pie … good, but we’ve had better.    Read more

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