We were up at 4.30 and started making our way to Gatwick. Rhys was leaving from Cardiff early too as River was coming back with us as he has finished his GCSE exams. A good thing that we did leave early as we still sat in traffic jams where there was road works. I think River arrived about 15 minutes before us, we just had to find the Avis “drop off” and then we met up with him. Rhys didn’t stay as he had loads to do ready for their house move. He had a busy day ahead. We were travelling (for the first time) with Turkish airlines. A good check in when they didn’t even weigh our hand luggage, not that ours was overweight anyway. The three of us then went off to have some breakfast.
I then received a phone call from Rhys. He was sitting on the M25 with a broken clutch/gear box!! He bought a fairly new car about 9 months ago, spent more money than usual, thinking it would last. Since then it has been in the garage 4 times! Is there something about us, another year when all 4 boys came back with us, Rhys broke down on the way back then as well. At least River was with us and it wasn’t on the way to the airport! But Rhys really couldn’t spare the waste of the day (waiting for the AA and being lifted on to a carrier etc). He had a customer coming to his unit for something important and he had the keys with him. In the end Lou had to break into the unit!! Not a good day for them. Of course they are also counting down the days to moving day and loads of painting to do in the house too. Result when he did reach the garage…..a new gear box!
It turned out not a good day for us either!!
After breakfast we had a wander around the shops and River bought an ereader. We talked him into it a bit as he was going to spend £15 on 2 paper backs. He is now so pleased he did.
We waited a long time to be called to the gate, already suggesting that our plane was delayed in arriving. However we boarded only about 15 minutes late. No problem we thought until we sat on the tarmac for 2 hours!!! At this stage we were a little concerned about our connecting flight, also Turkish Airlines. We asked the air hostess what would happen if we were late arriving in Istanbul and she said she would get back to us and spent the rest of the flight ignoring us!! How helpful…NOT!!! We landed at Istanbul airport about 10 minutes after our other flight took off. We couldn’t find anyone to tell us what to do, obviously we were concerned where our luggage would end up! The airport was very busy but finally we found the Turkish Airlines Enquiry Desk and queued there. When we got to the counter, he tore our tickets up and issued us with new ones but instead of our original 17.55, they were now 23.20! Not even a bat of an eyelid, apology, nothing. What great customer service. It seems pretty obvious to me, judging by the queue, this happens all the time. We swore then NEVER again are we using Turkish Airlines.
As soon as we landed on the first plane we called Chris, our lift to tell him about the delay, he was already half way to the airport!
So, we waited and waited and waited! Eventually we boarded the 23.20 plane. On arriving at Ercan, no Chris, so we had to wait for him but poor Chris had already made a second journey for the plane he thought we were arriving on, we weren’t on it and he had just arrived back home, so he had 3 journeys to the airport. What a total disaster it all was!
We arrived back at our villa at 3.40am!! A very long day and I don’t think we even need to say that was the first and the LAST time we will ever use Turkish Airlines!
