Sitting in Istanbul Airport

Writing this note from the boarding gate for our second flight of the day, going from Istanbul, Turkey to Doha, Qatar.

We were up at 5am this morning and by 6am we were on our way to the airport.

Our flight didn't leave until 10:25am, but we were told to get there early because of Covid etc, etc... then of course we sat around and waited for almost two hours for the bag drop to open!

And the airport wasn't at all busy. In fact, the exact opposite. There were four flights leaving all day!

We got there early, and had to sit around only to find out that the WiFi wasn't working. They only have one machine where you have to scan your boarding card to get access, and it was located outside the gate area. Ridiculous in this day and age.

Anyhow, the flight was almost full. I saw maybe six or eight empty seats. Everybody was really good about mask wearing, unlike our easyJet flight from the UK back in October. The only thing we both still find funny (odd? stupid?) are the people who want to rip off their seatbelt and jam themselves into the aisle as soon as the plan lands. Doesn't make any sense to us at all, but obviously we are in the minority.

Other than that, it was an uneventful one hour flight to Istanbul's SAW airport.

We had lots of time to waste before our 5:55pm flight to Doha, Qatar. But we couldn't go past passport control because the bag drop wouldn't open until almost 3:00pm! Oh well.

We finally got that done, and went to go through passport control. Of course our visas expired eight or nine days ago, and sure enough we got sent to immigration. We explained the story, and produced the letter from the doctor but that made no difference at all. He siad the only thing that would matter is if you were held up due to Covid!

Then he said "the fine will be 1,034 lira ($177 CAD, $139 USD) each". Yikes!

But he then explained we don't have to pay it now. In fact, we would only have to pay it if we come back within three months and then it would apply towards residency. Very strange, and we didn't quite get it. His English wasn't the best and he was trying to explain it through Google Translate.

But either way, it doesn't cost us anything right now, and if there are repercussions of any kind we will deal with them the next time we return to Turkey, possibly two years from now.

So we were cleared through passport control and on to the waiting area where we are now.

There are a few more international departures from this airport, but not many.

Here's an airport selfie for you!

Gotta go... we will update you again from Doha, Qatar!

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Drive from Antalya to Fethiye, and an encounter with the Turkish police.

We were a little late leaving yesterday. Had the car all packed up and ready to go by 11:00am, but our Airbnb host was a little late coming to get the key, and then we stood and had a nice chat with him for a while before leaving. But, we knew there would be very little traffic, it was only a 200 km (124 mile) drive, and we couldn't check in to our apartment in Fethiye until after 4:00pm.

Again, weekends are on lockdown for the Turkish people, but foreign tourists are exempt. We figured being on the highway there might be stop checks.

Time to move on, and the plan for the next few days

Well, it's moving day today! And we definitely feel like it's time to move on. We've been in this apartment in Antalya for exactly one month! It was almost starting to feel like our apartment.

Yesterday was our final eye doctor appointment, and everything is the way it should be so we are cleared to travel. Of course we still have eye drops to take for the next month or so.

There are so many neat things to see in the world!

And we saw another one of them yesterday.

We had read about the constantly burning fires at Mount Chimaera. And they are located on the Lycian Way hiking route, so we made a plan to do the hour and a half drive down to that section of the trail where we could access the fires area from below. 

It wasn't in the plan to visit any ruins... so it was a nice bonus!

In the morning, we went downtown to pick up our new glasses. Yes, we can do 90% of what we want to do without glasses. But we knew going into this eye surgery that the final results were not going to be perfect.

For me (Kevin), my left eye is pretty much perfect. But while my right eye has perfect near vision (it's actually amazing!), the distance vision is not yet. And it never will be, except that my brain hasn't quite caught on to that. And until it does, I am better to wear glasses for driving.

We finally made it to Old Town, Antalya

Most visitors to Antalya probably make it to Old Town on their very first day in the city. We've been here for almost a month, and we finally made it there yesterday! But we know, we're not normal.

It's hard to believe we've spent a full month here. Of course most of that is because of our eye surgery, but it's also because there's a lot to see, and it's a nice city... as far as cities go.

Hair cuts and a visit with friends

That's definitely the longest I've gone without a haircut for quite a while. The last time it was cut was the week before we left Canada, so over three months ago.

Ruth and I met when she cut my hair. And over the next 30 years, she was the only one who cut my hair! When we are traveling in a motorhome, she has her hair cutting gear with her. But otherwise, it's not so easy. 

Out for some more exploring

Yesterday was a bit of a dreary day, but it never did rain, and it most certainly didn't snow. The temperature went up to about 19C (66F), but there was no sunshine at all. There was also no wind at all.

We drove east through the city of Antalya and headed to the city of Side (pronounced See-deh).

There are two parts to Side... one is the beach resort area, and the other is the remains of the ancient city of Side.

It occurred to me that we are going to be 60 soon

An interesting thing happened the other day.

I looked in the mirror, and actually saw myself.

I didn't say anything to Ruth, but the funny thing was, a few hours later Ruth said she had the same experience!

Of course it was because we were no longer wearing glasses, and the person we saw in the mirror was actually in focus. Those of you who wear glasses may never experience seeing your face clearly without having those glasses on.

There is no Covid in Tanzania!

Tanzania's president has thanked a visiting Chinese minister for not wearing a mask, claiming it proves there's no coronavirus in the country.

From a BBC news article issued yesterday.

Yeah, okay.

So apparently it's going to be an interesting visit for us to Tanzania, one of the few countries in the world where life at this time goes on pretty much "normally". 

I've been following the stories of a few other travelers who are either in Tanzania or have been there over the past six months. 

The largest cave in Turkey... and we were the only ones there!

Ruth packed us a lunch, and we set off heading due north out of the city towards a cave that I had read about. One of the things that attracted me to this particular cave was that one of the reviews said "you will be the only ones there except for the cows"!

How could Turkey's largest cave get so few visitors? From looking at the map, I assumed it was because of the 3.8 km (2.4 mile) uphill hike to get there. We were overdue for some exercise, so we were looking forward to the hike.

Beach walk - Antalya

We had planned on driving about an hour and a half south to Mount Chimaera, but we were late getting going, and it was market day so we had to get some fruits and veggies at some point. We decided to put off the Mount Chimarea visit and go do our groceries and then just go down to the big beach here in Antalya and go for a walk.

Besides, it was a hazy day, so there likely wouldn't have been much scenery to admire at Mount Chimaera. It was pleasant though, and it got warmer than they had forecast.

Waterfalls around Antalya, Turkey

It was looking like another decent day yesterday with a forecast high of 20C (68F) and cloudy with sunny breaks. So we set off to do some more exploring.

There are several waterfalls in the area of Antalya, so we planned a route to include two of the more popular ones. The first one is within the city limits, but not the downtown area. It's called Upper Duden Waterfalls. We had been to the Lower Duden Waterfalls a couple of weeks ago.

Eye surgery... all the details

On Monday afternoon we went back for a follow up appointment regarding our eye surgery. Bottom line, everything is proceeding exactly the way it should be. But there is more to it, so for anybody considering the same thing, here are ALL the details...

What we had done is called Refractive Lens Exchange.

It's exactly the same surgery as cataract surgery, with one difference. We didn't have cataracts.

Finally... out for some more exploring!

The weekend lockdown was over, and it was a half decent day from a weather perspective. So we were itching to get out and do some exploring. It's all fine and good to get this eyesight thing done, but between that and the lockdowns and the weather, we haven't had a chance to do nearly as much exploring in this area as we wanted to. 

So on Monday morning, we hopped in the car and drove up into the mountains behind Antalya.