Adventures in Europe: Istanbul, Turkey (and a flight over Bulgaria)

Today was a real disaster.  It was supposed to involve me traveling to Sofia, Bulgaria, but I am still in Istanbul, after what was by far the scariest, most confusing flight I have ever been on.

But, first, early in the morning, Melanie and I headed across the Bosphorus again, but this time not on a ferry but on the Marmaray line--Istanbul's new metro line that goes underneath the Bosphorus.

Once in Asia, we experienced some chaos, but ended up getting Melanie on her bus off to the Asian Istanbul Airport, whence she flew to Barcelona, where I will meet up with her on Friday.

Meanwhile, I jumped on a minibus to head to Kartal, a suburban Istanbul neighbourhood along the Sea of Marmara, where I lived with my family in the early 1990s.  Back then, we always took the suburban train, but that right of way is being converted so that the Marmaray can be extended all the way to Istanbul's Asian airport.

I crossed the tracks/construction project and headed the few blocks I knew so well as a kid.

In many ways it seemed quite familiar, and I was able to navigate by memory easily: past the old grocery store, which has since been re-branded;

and around the corner past the old bakery (also, according to my mom, re-branded, although that was not totally obvious to me);

and then around another corner to more or less where I used to live;

except, it is now a construction project too!

The two condo towers furthest to the left in this promotional poster are what is proposed for the site.  This poster also gives a sense for the spectacular view I totally took for granted as a child!

I circled the construction site and headed toward the sea.  Some of this here has changed . . .

. . . but I am pretty sure this fenced soccer field is the same!

I crossed the busy road . . . 

. . . and over to the seaside recreational area, with tennis courts, running/cycling trails, and an exercise equipment park.

And, of course, the sea.

Here are more pictures from the neighborhood (so much construction!):

Back on Uskudar Caddesi I caught a minibus going east.

Turned out it was the wrong one, so, two more minibuses later, I finally got to Maltepe metro station.

The metro took me back to the Marmaray, and I made it back to the hotel just in time to have breakfast.

From there, I gathered my things and headed to the airport.  My Turkish Airlines flight left on time (14:45) and was quick and painless.  We began descending over Sofia, and we could see the city and surrounding countryside clearly.  There was snow here and there, but most things appeared dry and clear.

We got quite low over the city, such that I could identify some of the larger buildings and take pictures like this:

I do not know how to gauge altitude, but we were quite low and clearly on track to land when suddenly the engines got significantly louder and we began ascending sharply.  

We circled and the seat back TV map began showing an awful lot of yellow line going nowhere above Sofia.  Maybe after five or ten minutes we came back around and we again had the same view of Sofia as we had just had.  

The exact same thing happened again--normal descending until at some point the engines gunned and we began ascending.  

At this point I was becoming concerned.  Our ETA had been 15:05, and now it was 15:30.  I sent these WhatsApp messages to Melanie (times are in Sofia--one hour behind Istanbul):

15:36 "This landing in Sofia is scary"

15:36 "We've pulled up twice. Something's wrong..."

15:37 "Bouncing around a lot too. Way way past schedule"

15:38 "I'm actually scared for the first time on a flight ever. They aren't telling us anything either"

15:43 "We're heading away from Sofia now. Burning fuel? Looking for another airport?"

The map below shows the whole "heading away."

15:50 "Wow. Finally some communication. We're returning to Istanbul!"

15:51 "They say the problem is weather but I don't believe them. Looked totally fine..."

16:20 "Now back by Istanbul and turned back around!"

16:20 "Heading west again"

16:21 "This is so strange"

16:22 "We're over the Black Sea going in circles"

16:32 "Alright looks like we're ready to land at IST"

16:35 "Landed"

16:36 "Nothing wrong with the airplane apparently"

On the ground, the plane parked by a maintenance garage, and it was a long, long bus ride back to the terminal.  I was not impressed with the continued lack of communication, and my frustration with Turkish Airlines was only going to increase.

Eventually I ended up with a boarding pass for the next flight to Sofia, scheduled for 20:00.  Meanwhile, I scrambled to find internet (surprisingly hard at Ataturk airport) so that I could communicate with my guesthouse.

At 19:38, waiting at the gate for my flight, I sent this WhatsApp to Melanie: "Nope, this one is canceled too."  Again, weather was blamed.

Almost three hours later, my exit passport stamp canceled, I am at an airport Marriott for the night.  

No one has told me when my flight is tomorrow, and generally I have nothing but bad things to say about how Turkish Airlines has handled this situation.