Tiresome Travel

                    It seems like much longer than six weeks ago that I wrapped up my time in Indonesia and spent a glorious five weeks at home- catching up with friends and family, showing Joe the sights, eating way too much spectacular food and just all around having an amazing time.  It all came to an abrupt end roughly 31 hours ago, when Mom and Dad dropped us off at YVR with big hugs and plans to see each other soon, that the long reality check of the lifestyle I have chosen was thrust back upon me.  Being frugal, Joe and I decided to fly with Condor Air to Frankfurt.  Now, while I am sure that this airline would be splendid for short haul flights, it is not an aircraft designed for long haul flights.  Realizing that their baggage allowance was vastly insufficient, we sucked it up and paid 115.00 dollars to get a teensy bit more luggage to Frankfurt and then cleared customs and unwound with a beer and a Subway before our flight.  We headed to the back of the plane (where the rude man at the counter had placed me in a middle seat second row from the back) to discover that the only media options for our ten hour flight was one episode of Friends, and one chick flick- What to Expect When You’re Expecting.  I had already seen both of these, but in the essence of killing time, I would rewatch them both. 

Our last beer in Vancouver

                     We were also unpleasantly surprised by the lack of leg room- emphasized by the woman in front of me insisting on reclining her chair as far back as she could for the entire flight- including meals- disregarding everything any seasoned traveller knows about airplane etiquette 101.  I spent a good time with my knees in the back of her chair in passive retaliation.  Despite the movies and the terrible food, and the appallingly bad customer service (when the drinks man passed by, Joe had his headphones in and he took them out and said, Pardon, and the man said “What do you think I am going to ask you?” it passed and will soon fade away into memory although I would most definitely not fly Condor again unless I had no other option.

          
             We gathered our luggage in Frankfurt (again, in the essence of being frugal we had booked the journey as two separate flights) cleared customs, and then had eight hours to kill before heading to Istanbul.  Frankfurt is an expensive airport, and although beer and Jägermeister were ridiculously cheap – that is not enough to sustain one  for that long a time, and money flew a little more than I would have cared to spend but alas.  Turkish Airlines, our hosts for the next two fights, had a much more gracious baggage allowance (considering that Frankfurt to Malatya is half the distance from Vancouver to Frankfurt I found this quizzical, again aiding my active dislike for Condor Air), allowing us to split the weight between our bags and not making us pay extra.  We weren’t expecting food on the flight (it was only four hours) so we bought a quick dinner (yet more money down the drain), but Turkish Airlines was timely, polite, and had ample leg space.  Due to the lack of sleep on the first flight, I nodded off before we took off, and was awoken about an hour later by drinks and a highly delicious meal.  They finished it off with a cup of coffee and I alternatively read and dozed until we hit Istanbul.

         

      Yet another painful realization arose in Istanbul when it was discovered (there was no info online- we did look) that my entry visa would cost US $60.00 while Joe’s cost only $20.00.  My credit card is a little wilted at the moment, and it turns out travelling cheap actually cost more money in airports than I have ever spent in my life.  I suppose fifteen hours worth of waiting in them will do that to a person.  Needless, at 2:30am in Istanbul, both Joe and I were quite cranky waiting for the third flight, so he watched Fringe and I wrote this delightfully jaded blog while waiting for our final leg to Malatya.