I'm glad that day is over

What a dreadful day.  Check-in for our flight started at 9.30am.  We had stayed overnight and booked the 'Hotel Hoppa' bus to take us into the airport.  We came out to get it in plenty of time to allow ourselves to get to the airport long before check-in started, and have a leisurely look around the airport shops.

The first Hoppa bus didn't turn up.  The next two were so full you couldn't have got a child on, let alone all the mass of people waiting.  Two more turned up empty for a different terminal and refused point blank to do anything to help.  People were trying to get taxis instead but in view of the rail strike there weren't many, plus there had been an accident in the airport tunnel so traffic was at a standstill.  After waiting outside the hotel for over an hour and a half we had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to miss our flight and therefore the whole holiday.  However, we finally managed to get a taxi and made it to the check-in desk five minutes before they closed the flight.  It didn't help that the bitch lady on the queue told us off for being late and said it didn't matter about the traffic; we should have got there earlier.  This is the second time we have been let down by Hotel Hoppa buses; suffice to say they will never get another chance to do so.

Anyway, we made the flight and landed in Istanbul.  Sadly, we won't get a chance to see the city as we are now off on the first leg of our tour of the ancient sites along the Aegean coast of Turkey.  We are in our hotel and will be having an early night before heading off to our first destination of Troy.  My picture is the only one I took today, in the fading light, through a bus window, as we left the airport at Istanbul.

I have no doubt the rest of the holiday, and the photos, will be better.