Trouble in Turkiye

Probably the worst start ever to a holiday. The journey to Heathrow is ok but I'm delayed going through Security as my hand luggage is searched without reason (of course, it's September 11th). Having boarded the plane, we then sit on the tarmac for 90 minutes beyond flight time as there's some "non-structural damage to the body of the aircraft that the engineers need to sign off as safe". This ultimately means we land 2 hours late, and as I had stupidly opted for an aisle seat in the back row, I spend a large proportion of the flight having people's groins or bums in my face as they queue for the lav. Thankfully, I had bought a sandwich at Pret as by the time the cabin crew get to the back row they have run out of sandwiches. 

On arrival, I have no phone network and have to run around sorting out wifi so that I can try to message the the tour company. I had informed them of the delay but there's no-one there to meet us, though once I can access WhatsApp it turns out that two different people came along too early. Eventually Emre, a charming student, turns up and after about 40 minutes we're then on a comfortable posh people carrier wending our way through the traffic to the old city Crowne Plaza. The street outside is being dug up and we pick our way across rubble to gain access.

And then we discover we haven't been booked into separate rooms despite exorbitant surcharges, resulting in hasty consultation of paperwork and frantic phone calls. While we wait for this to be sorted out, we retire to the bar for a glass of wine only to discover that a bottle of reasonable stuff is going to cost us the best part of £70, so we settle for a couple of G&Ts and some mixed nuts instead (now ravenous!).

Rooms sorted, at least for tonight, and after dumping bags we venture out avoiding the builders' diggers and lorries to find a recommended restaurant that doesn't seem to exist where it's supposed to, so we settle for an inferior hotel restaurant with a very sweet waiter but equally inferior mezze and a pleasant bottle of wine which still costs us £37.

And still, I have no phone network despite having logged in for roaming twice. I log in on the hotel wifi and attempt to speak to EE without success and will have to try again in the morning, plus spend a bloody fortune on data, most of which I won't need.

 Tomorrow is another day, mooching around Istanbul with the help of a guide, but I do hope it's a better one - please!