Woke up at 6:30am as I had lots to get sorted and this was probably the most unorganised I have ever been for a trip. I had to pack put we had both only booked cabin bags for the week and I started panicking about how I was going to fit everything in a small case. In the end I logged on to the Hopper app and added a case to the outbound flight. It wouldn't let me do it for the inbound for some reason, so I will have to sort that once we are in Turkey.
Packed in a rush and had washing all over the hour that still needed putting away so I will have to ask a favour from my house sitter to fold a bit of washing for me :-/ I hate coming back to a mess and I am not going to be this unorganised again for a trip because it caused my stress levels to be sky-high and I couldn't relax.
Dropped my car off at mums and gave Bella lots of kisses and cuddles then me and Kirsty jumped in a taxi to the airport. We got there in plenty of time and it was really quiet at the check-in part of the airport. Even the security part didn't have the usual zig-zag queues. The only bit where the hold-up seemed to be was at the actual security desks where they kept telling people over and over again about not having liquids and creams etc in their hand luggage. He even told us that out of the last 10 bags to go through all 10 had gone done the rejected lane. Kirsty remarked about how thick can some people be when they kept telling you not to... then whose case got rejected? lol Kirsty's! I was starving so told her I would meet her upstairs where the shops were as I needed food.
Got myself a meal deal and a book from WH Smith. It's one from my Book Club that had been recommended called "Wrong Place Wrong Time" I wanted a fiction book as my next one so that I could get engrossed in it as the one I am currently on (and had left at home in all the rush) is one about health and wellbeing so I wanted to switch things up. I hadn't realised it was on of my Book Club titles until I had gone to add it to the list. I had just been drawn to the cover and the description of the book, so it must have been fate to pick this one up :-)
Kirsty eventually joined me and grabbed herself a meal deal for the flight too then we went and sat in a bar waiting for our gate information to come up on the screens.
Eventually, our flight info came up and we walked 10,000 miles to the gate. We were on pretty quick but I don't feel like we took off on time as it was almost 3pm by the time we left and I'm sure it said 1:55pm on the boarding passes. Anyway, we got seated and I think they put us in the seats we got just to make me have a stressful flight. We had Snorty Mc-hawk-it-up behind me who kept making this hideous noise snorting up his snot and if I'd had some tissued I would have passed him so back. Instead, I had to resort to the typical British way of saying nothing and just puffing and blowing and shaking my head every time he did it. The guy next to Kirsty decided everyone needed to hear the short videos he was watching on his phone. He had constant clips of various monologues in a foreign language playing really loud. Why he didn't bring headphones with him, bugger only knows. Again if I'd had some with me I would have offered to lend them to him. Instead, I just had to keep saying things out loud like "THAT'S going to get annoying", or "THAT's what headphones are for" He didn't take any notice but it made me feel better. Kirsty (who is braver than me) asked him to turn it down after a while as it was annoying'. To frustrate her more he was almost oozing over into her seat and had an elbow permanently wedged in her side. She kept looking at me and rolling her eyes and eventually tried to go to sleep with her head on my shoulder to escape him.
Flight from hell over we landed in SAW and sailed through passport control. A quick game of Suitcase Roulette (I'd used a work suitcase I wasn't familiar with so didn't recognise it). I eventually just picked up one and opened it to see if my stuff was inside, luckily it was. Once outside we went over to the area between stands 12 and 13 as Emre our patient coordinator had sent me a video showing us where to go. Names checked off the list and transfers ordered. We grabbed a slice of pizza each from across the road while we waiting and then pretty much by the time we'd eaten it, we were in the back of a minivan and on our way to the hotel.
It was about an hour's transfer to the hotel and it's the one we have stayed at before so we knew the area a bit. Dropped our bags in the room and then went straight up to the rooftop restaurant to meet Layla for dinner.
We both had spag bol and Layla had lamb chops then we retired to our rooms to bed.