TURKEY TRIP REPORT DAY 19: Part 2: UPSIDE DOWN HOUSE; DAY 20: Flight back home

Entered the house... quite colorful decor, meticulous attention to detail and everything upside down!

VIDEO LINKS

Upside down house, Istanbul:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hPMmJ7PqCRRKi9vN8

So our pics were like this...

Living room:

After flipping they look like this...

Rain was heavy, wind was howling, we ran to the bus shelter. Our bus came in 5 minutes. We did not have any charge on our Istanbulkart, the kind driver let us take a free ride. We got down at Eminonu, charged our card for just 2 rides and boarded the tram. Arrived at Beyazit and splashed through the rivulets to our apartment. We were a soggy mess . Spent time trying to dry the clothes and shoes. Then packed... we were taking a hotel taxi to the airport at 10 am for our 1.30 pm flight back home to Houston

 NOV 30, 2021, TUESDAY: 

I had already given the report in the intro. I'm repeating it here.

Took the taxi arranged by hotel for 30 euros at 10 am. Thankfully there was no rain. We had anyway worn our rain pants on top of our regular ones and sandals. There were big puddles at airport entrance and we happily splashed through. Inside we took off the rain pants and the sandals, wore our shoes and were ready for our flight.

When we boarded our flight on Nov 11 for our Turkey vacation, rules did not require any test both onward as well as flight back. We verified from the Turkish airline website as well as by phone call.

on Nov 30, our flight back was at 2.30 pm and we arrived at the airport at 11.30. We had confirmed the previous day by phone that no test was needed.

The queue for checkin was long as all US flights were in the same queue. When our turn came for check in, they asked for the COVID test result on top of our vax cert.

They tagged our checkin bag, even printed our boarding pass, but said we can collect it after showing them the negative test.... no need for joining the line.... just walk up with the paper.. they directed us where to go.

On the lift there was a guy going down to collect his result. he said his result took 1 1/2 hrs as he had truthfully told them his flight time as 4 pm.

When we were at the registration counter at 12.35 and the guy asked our flight time we said 2 pm, as we were scared of delays. We paid 175 liras per person.

Our test was at 12.50, result after 20 min.

We went back to the check in counter, showed the result, got our boarding passes and went for exit control.

The girl at the exit control counter was a drama queen... she kept me standing for 10 minutes, muttering and shaking her head, asking for my evisa etc. We have everything printed and ready, so no issues.

After security when we went to our gate, everybody had already boarded!!

there were 5 points of checking there, again asking for the negative test, vax cert etc, opening our bags and rummaging inside. the rude girl almost ripped off the zip of my bag.

We had had a fabulous time in the country encountering the nicest people, so we brushed off these last minute niggles!

I'll be continuing with Chile trip reports.

How to plan a trip to Chile: Intro is here: 

https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2022/01/how-to-plan-trip-to-chile-intro.html