Yet Another Change to the Itinerary!

Hello!

I apologize for not blogging yesterday (Sunday, the 12^th) but I was not feeling up to my best.  My coughing has gotten very bad and, quite frankly, an episode I had yesterday morning really scared both R and me.  I was coughing so hard that I was unable to catch my breath and it just wouldn’t stop; more like a fit or a convulsion.  Scary.  So, then came the conversation about medical assistance.  Hmmmm… and, while I really love Turkey the country and Turkey the people, I really wasn’t ready to assign my medical care to them.  Call me silly but that’s how we both felt.  So, as we had accomplished my three main objectives: Ankara’s Museum of Anatolian Civilizations; my walk at Hattusha in the paths of the Hittites, and my gold bracelet from Adana, we felt it might be a wiser thing to cancel the last few days and see if we could get back to England a bit sooner.

Well, the wonders of computers!  I was able to cancel hotels, as well as book us on an earlier flight, leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) instead of Friday.  It will go into Stansted rather than Gatwick, but that’s fine, and we will catch the Stansted Express train into London for a few days before picking up the car and heading to Philippa and Dan’s.  Ain’t no way I want to pass this on to anybody and they have two small boys, so I want to make sure that all is under control before our visit!  (I mean really:  Don’t you just love it when someone shows up to dinner or a visit and they’re ILL?  And one is tempted to ask:  WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???)

So … Sunday we basically spent around the hotel and/or sleeping and/or repacking luggage.  Very boring but I think I needed the rest. 

Lovely bridge with little traffic!

Seriously little traffic!

No pictures, unfortunately!  We had dinner last night – I had soup and vanilla ice cream, and R had soup and lamb chops, which he very much enjoyed.  Then we paid the bill and retired for the night, about 10 pm. 

New route on our GPS -- notice -- no bridge!

Lovely cloudy day!

Looking out on the sea of Marmara

Up this morning about 6, and literally out the door by 6:30 am.  The computer estimates anywhere from 5½ to 6½ hours.  Well, all told, it took 6½ hours, and wasn’t a bad journey at all!  We did get crossed up around Bursa because of very poor road signage, but were able to recover very quickly.  Great job by Robert!  We also went over what appears to be a very new bridge – and one whose toll was 77.60 TL ($20.93) which was quite steep, it seemed to us – which may explain why we basically had the entire bridge to ourselves!  [The bridge is so new, it isn’t on our 2016 GPS map.]  From there, it was just a few kilometers, and voila, we were back at the Hampton Sabhia Gokcen Hotel near the airport from whence our journey began!  We checked in at the hotel – lovely room, with huge balcony, 1606 (6^th floor), dropped the luggage, and then drove over to drop off the car.  (Which, I must admit, since it had its servicing in Kayseri, as I think it was out of water and all possible other fluids has been performing very well!)  The Erboycar guys were exactly as we had left them, and we were able to drop the car and get a promise of deposit refunds as well as repair costs within seven days.  As Robert says:  We’ll see!

From there, we walked back toward our hotel, and across the street spotted a small shopping mall with a Burger King.  (Certainly not my first choice in fast food, but it was 2 pm and we needed something to eat.)  Not a great many shops still open in the building but we enjoyed our lunch and then headed back across the street.  We will have to find a better alternative for dinner, but that can come later!  First, I need a nap!

More from Istanbul!

m

xxx

I owe Turkey a definite apology!  We are just back from Emsey Hospital, which is about five minutes from the hotel.  Those people were wonderful; truly!  I had another coughing attack, and decided that I didn’t want to wait for help.  So … taxied to the hospital, and literally, when we walked in to Emergency, we were immediately – and I mean within 15 seconds – taken to an exam room.  There they took my temperature and blood pressure, and by this time, they had located a young man (who turned out to be Syrian) who spoke some English.  Next we went to – billing! Okay, paid for the exam up front, 330 TL ($89 US).  (Which we will get reimbursed by our HTH Insurance.)  Next, into the doctor with the nice young man from Syria.  Good thing, too, as the doctor spoke about as much English as we speak Turkish.  He thought I had an acute bronchial infection but ordered x-ray and blood draw.  Back to billing and this would be 400-something TL. 

Loved the plates!

Finally figured out how to get a rare steak!

The blood draw was instant and painless and the x-ray took just a few minutes.  We had to wait until the blood draw was analyzed, which took about an hour.  Lovely huge, clean waiting room, with free food on the tables!!  Back to the doctor, and guess what?  He was right!  I could see the infection on my chest x-ray and the doctor explained (or tried to!) the meds – turns out, there are five of them, including an inhaler and a gargle!  So, next a cab to the nearest open pharmacy; meds (all 5) were a total of 105 TL ($28 US)  Yep, that’s right -- $28!  Amazing!  Found a taxi down the street, and we were back here in a little over 2 hours.  Incredible, seeing that Robert didn’t even hit triage in that amount of time at TMC Emergency Room last summer.  Yeah…  Had the desk clerk here at the hotel go over the meds and what/when, and I think we’ve got it.  Then, as we were both hungry, out the door again to a steak place around the corner.  Wasn’t great but wasn’t too bad either and it definitely filled the hole, as my brother likes to say!  We both had rare entrecote steaks with fries and veggies.  Now back in the room so that I can finish the blog, and we can get to bed.  Plane to UK tomorrow morning!

Lots of love,

m

xxx