The flight home to Hawler

Dear Saffron,

You will be happy to know that I made it safely back to Hawler. The unfortunate thing is that it took 2 days and was costly as I had to go back and forth between the airport twice and buy plane tickets for two alternate routes home. (But at least they will refund almost 70% of the cost of one of the tickets).

On Thursday, I waited until 8:00 pm to go and buy my ticket in the airport. At 8:00, the agent asked me to come back at 9:00 as the computer was down. At 9:00, the agent told me the flight was postponed and that I should go home and come back on Friday. I stored my luggage at left luggage and took a bus back to Beşiktaş.

The next morning, I woke up early to a phone call from Cengis (you will remember him the post about Batman). I don't really understand Turkish, but it seemed like he was asking when I would be there. So I took a quick shower and rushed out to the travel agency to try and find a ticket to Batman or Diyarbakır. Unfortunately, the earliest flight wasn't until 6:55pm... but the travel agent helped me to call Cengis only to find out that he probably wasn't really inviting me along since he was already at the border.

Anyway, I decided to hold off on the ticket until 1:00 pm in case Laveen decided to fly. At 1:00 pm however, they said that it was unlikely and that I should just buy my ticket to Diyarbakir. The flight to Diyarbakır had been filling up and as there were only 8 seats left, the price had increased by $20.00. I bought the ticket over the phone and slowly started making my way to the airport. At 5:50, just before picking up my luggage, I checked Laveen again to find out that they had decided that they had changed their minds and that the flight would (100% certainty) be leaving at 10:00 pm. I agreed to the $50.00 cancellation fee for the Diyarbakır ticket and bought a round trip to Erbil... And as you have probably guessed I made it home safely, but the troubles never cease! My phone battery died and I was unable to call and confirm my arrival time with Mu so there was nobody to pick me up from the airport. At least the taxi driver spoke some English and decided to bring me home (5 minutes) for less than the 'special' airport taxi fee of $25.00.