Turkiet
İkince Kültür

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    • Dag 94

      Return Plans Jiggled

      7 december 2021, Turkiet ⋅ 🌧 54 °F

      Mui returned from Eskişehir yesterday. His farewell get together with the family was a success by all accounts and they had great fun Saturday night at their mock New Year’s Eve dinner.

      As it turns out, we might have to do a mock New Year’s celebration here in İzmir, too. You see, our travel plans have changed. This is not a change we wanted, but circumstances dictated that this would be our least stressful alternative. It is what it is!

      At the time we made our travel plans, Turkey had a COVID-19 testing requirement to enter the country … the US did not. By the time we left the US in September, things were reversed. At the time, the US re-entry requirement gave us 3 days prior to departure from Turkey to complete our testing. That officially changed yesterday and the US requirement for testing went from 3 days to 1 day prior.

      Any other time that would have been OK. Labs in Turkey provide ample testing locations with results provided well within the required time frame. But the “1 day” before our 2 January departure is a holiday. Labs are either closed … or unsure whether they will be open … or cannot guarantee results for travel testing within the normal timeframes. Mui checked with a lab that has multiple locations, a private hospital, and the testing kiosk at the airport. All with the same results … no guarantees.

      So, Mui followed my suggestion, and while he was at the airport, he went to the THY ticket sales counter and asked about our options to change our departure date. As we had anticipated, a later departure was going to be too costly as our fare bucket — the 40% off promo — does not extend beyond 2 January. The agent who helped him said we could move to 31 December, but suggested 30 December would be a safer bet for testing purposes.

      Thus, we will be departing on 30 January … same flights as we originally booked … just a different date. Another change … the equipment we’ll be flying won’t be a Dreamliner. Rather, we’ll be on the B777 that we’re more used to flying. I’m OK with that. We’ve got our seat assignments and all’s good.

      Of course, there was a domino effect to these changes. It was now my turn to get busy making alternate plans.

      Long story short, our IAH-COS flight with UA has been rescheduled … with the same exit row seats, no less. And our hotel reservation at IAH has been rebooked for the required overnight before continuing home (we don’t have enough time to make the last connecting flight to COS)

      Our new arrangements are all in the can. Our ducks are lined up. 🤞🏻 all goes well.
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    • Dag 37

      Antiquities & Art

      24 april 2022, Turkiet ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

      A sunny, blue sky day in İzmir — with temps reaching into the high 70F range — begged to be enjoyed outdoors. Mom set up her chaise lounge on the terrace and sat down to read. Mui and I joined Aylin and Murat at Kültür Park [Culture Park], which is also the site of the city’s annual international fair.

      First up … morning tea at İzmir Sanat, an outdoor café operated by the municipality. Then, a short stroll through the fairgrounds to visit two small museums … one featuring artifacts uncovered during archaeological digs in the area … and the other featuring paintings and sculptures. Admission to both was covered by the MüzeKart we purchased in İstanbul during our cruise. Thus, I am now ₺27.50 (~ $1.90) ahead of the game, and Mui, as a senior who gets free admission, has saved (~ $5.30) 🤪

      By the time we left the museum, it was time for afternoon tea. Collecting mom from her condo, we went to Özsüt Select, a nearby patisserie where we found a table on the sidewalk … grilled cheese and croissant sandwiches … latte and tea.

      No … none of us had any thoughts of eating dinner tonight.
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    • Dag 6

      Gazi Bulvari

      4 maj 2022, Turkiet ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

      Die Gazi Bulvari Straße ist ca. einen halben Kilometer lang und hat nur Brautmodengeschäfte. Da sieht man mal wieder, wie gut die gesellschaftlichen Normen und Werte mit der Ökonomie zusammenpassen 😅

    • Dag 102

      Mexican Street Food Night

      15 december 2021, Turkiet ⋅ ☁️ 46 °F

      Our place in Alsancak — which belongs to Mui’s sister, who graciously allows us to use it when we are visiting family in İzmir — was the setting for our next big food event. It was now our turn to host everyone for dinner.

      The theme we chose for this dinner was “Mexican Street Food Fiesta.” The kitchen here doesn’t have all of the accoutrements we have at home … meaning not enough of any settings for eight people. So, just like one might find at a corner eatery in a small Mexican village, we mixed and matched.

      On the menu … Mexican corn chowder; corn salad, beef empanadas, and beef tacos … and all the fixings that go along with these menu favorites. Liquid beverages included … margaritas, Dos X beer, and wine. For dessert … mini lemon tarts. All Mui’s doing.

      Everyone seemed to enjoy everything … the sign of a successful dinner.

      (I could have sworn that I took photos of each dish … I was wrong.)
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    • Dag 17

      It Is Done!

      14 mars 2020, Turkiet ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F

      The airline tickets for our unanticipated early departure from Turkey are purchased.

      We're taking this step primarily because, in this quickly changing COVID-19 environment, we're not sure what will be happening with transportation worldwide. While being stranded in Turkey with family is not necessarily a bad thing, our lives — and our health insurance — are US-based. Best to be back home in more familiar territory.

      Our original 2020 overseas jaunt included time in Turkey with family, followed by a few days in England and a cruise along coastal France. Those plans would have seen us flying back to the US in early June. Instead, we've scrapped everything and will be flying back to Colorado on March 19.

      I'll address any financial ramifications of our decision in a separate post after we've canceled or postponed everything ... but we already know that the biggest chunk — our European Quest cruise on Oceania — will be given back to us as a future cruise credit per the new liberal cancelation policy that was put in to effect last week.

      We're sad to be cutting our time with the family short ... it is what it is, I guess.
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    • Dag 18

      Change to Outbound Travel Plans

      15 oktober 2022, Turkiet ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F

      I’ve been horribly remiss in writing about our time in Türkiye. I’ll try to get a summary footprint uploaded before we leave in a few days’ time. In the meantime, a quickie snippet about a change in our travel plans.

      We were relaxing before breakfast this morning when Mui came across a news headline that had us scrambling to make new departure arrangements for 18 October.

      Turns out that Lufthansa and Eurowings are going on strike starting on the 17th. Darn! Not good news for us since we’re scheduled to fly out of Stuttgart, Germany on Eurowings for the last segment of our three-flight travel day from Türkiye to England. It’s a real shame as the business class award tickets I purchased to get us to England required incredibly low miles to be used.

      Nothing to do but make alternative arrangements. I knew we could fly THY from İstanbul to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR), but were there alternatives with other airlines direct from İzmir? The short answer? Yes. But none of them flew to LHR. That might have been OK any other time, but we have National Express bus tickets to get us to Southampton from LHR.

      Thus, I booked us on THY … a mid-morning flight from ADB to IST … an early afternoon flight from IST to LHR. The possible upside to the new plan? We might arrive early enough to switch to the 6:15p bus from LHR to Southampton🤞🏻.
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