When it comes to traveling, getting to the destination is half the battle. Sure, the destination can be tricky. There's sometimes a language barrier and the challenge of getting comfortable in an unfamiliar place, but before all that, there's the ride of maneuvering yourself from point A to point B. And that's where a lot of the angst, anticipation and obstacles occur.
We've actually been pretty lucky with our traveling, except for a few hiccups. We hit one train strike in Italy that caused some worry and delay, another missed flight connection that left us with an extra night in Seattle, and now we have another one to add to our list which I alluded to in my last post. On Saturday as we were headed to the airport to fly back to London from Istanbul, we got word that a plane had to make an emergency landing at Istanbul airport due to engine failure. Thankfully, everyone onboard was okay, but they shut down one of the two runways and any order or structure to the air traffic control shut down too.
We started out with a one hour delay. Not bad. Then it became two. After two hours of waiting, our flight became cancelled. We were herded around aimlessly while British Airways came up with a plan. We decided to grab a beer in the meantime. Finally, a woman comes out and tells us that 80 hotel rooms are available to the first 80 people who board the buses outside. Aaron and I look at each other, and our plan is put into motion: we use our power walking skills, he puts the bags strategically in the luggage storage below while I grab a seat at the front of the bus. We arrive at the hotel and unload, again Aaron grabbing the bags and me bolting for the hotel entrance. Inside we learn the bus has dropped us off at the wrong hotel. So it's a free-for-all, but Aaron and I work like a machine together, repeating our previous song and dance.
Our teamwork pays off- we are one of the first hotel check ins and by this time it is 10pm and the line is out the door. We grab dinner while the rest of our flight is checking in and when we are done, there is still a line.
The flight is rescheduled for 2pm the next day. And just as Aaron and I did the previous night, we fall into our pattern again in the morning. He loads the bags while I grab a seat at the front of the bus. We are probably the people that all the other travelers hate. But we are the first ones to check our bags and we maneuver our way through the 1,000 Australians (Anzac day) and all the other passengers on delayed flights swiftly and easily. And even though we spent an extra day at a hotel airport in Istanbul, we made it work.
We may not always know exactly what to do, but Aaron and I can usually come up with a plan pretty quickly. And if we don't have one, we just grab a beer : )
Our good friends recently moved back to the US after having lived in London for a year and a half. Like us, they travelled a lot while they lived here. So on their last night, we asked them what the best trips they took were and both said canyoning in Interlaken. And that's how it was added to our bucket list : )
We first got dressed in our wetsuits, shoes, helmets and harnesses, and then drove to the canyon. After hiking in a ways, we reached the water and practiced an initial "jump" in. I'm convinced this jump is only to get the initial shock of the water temperature out of the way - it is so cold! The wet suit keeps you pretty warm but our face and hands were exposed.
