Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Istanbul Arrival: What a blast!

We were reminded yesterday that travel is always filled with surprises.  Some a bit startling. 

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Having left Seattle some 20 hours prior to our arrival in Istanbul (the overnight stop in our trip to Greece) we were enjoying the fresh air outside the Istanbul airport and watching the hypnotizing traffic: taxi horns honking, buses jostling to edge near the curb, drivers weaving between them.

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Arriving Istanbul
Mesmerizing to our jet-lagged brains as we waited for the Marriott Courtyard shuttle van to pick us up. We also noted a police car, lights flashing that seemed to be chasing waiting taxis from the curb. Parking violations, we reasoned.

Then it occurred to us the street had cleared: no vehicles were arriving, large groups of waiting travelers were at curbside. Traffic was stopped some distance away.

A fellow traveler joined our waiting group and said, “'It’s a security issue,” he explained. “They are holding traffic for a half hour or so.”

And so we waited. Then. . .

KA-BOOM! from the far end of the Terminal.

Yep, a security issue alright.  Something suspicious was blown up.
Traffic resumed.
Our shuttle arrived. 
You might say our arrival here was a real blast.

More from Greece. . .when we get there!

9 comments:

  1. Holy SMOKES!!!! My eyes got BIG as golf balls at the "KA-BOOM!!" part, Jackie! Thank gawd you two are alright. Wow...still shaking my head saying, "my gawd..." to this post.

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    Replies
    1. .As I noted on FB Mike we were so jetlagged that it took a moment for it to register, but it did wake up the senses that had been numbed in the plane ride and as Joel noted, it happened too quickly to really be scared.

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  2. What??? An explosion?? You sound so calm, kinda like, 'yeah..been there, done that...'! Glad you are okay! Kiss the land of the gods for me, will ya? I miss their magic!!

    xo
    Poppy
    P.S. Can't wait to hear about your adventures and too bad we missed each other!!

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    Replies
    1. Oh Poppy, it has been only three days and we are so happy to be back in this lovely country of yours!!! xo

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  3. Replies
    1. Nothing boring about travel, is there? Have you two returned to Moondance yet?

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  4. Just glad it was a controlled - on purpose by the police - kind of explosion and not the other kind. That other kind would have caused a bit of fear.

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  5. What a welcome you got, then! A city and country that I've been intrigued with for a long time.

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  6. That is a bit scary!!! At least you know that the police were all around and had it under control. I would definitely have jumped after that big BOOM sound!

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