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Coming home from a really enjoyable vacation is never easy but it's even harder when my feelings about "home" are ambivalent. Yesterday was no exception and was actually compounded by the fact that I knew I was coming down with something...(maybe the flu?) and had just spent a really long day traveling: one taxi, three planes, and one bus for a total of 14 hours of travel. (I could have gotten to DC for that amount of time) To add insult to injury it was raining.
But there is usually a silver lining to everything if you look hard enough and the final leg of last night's bus ride was that silver lining. Let me backtrack a little. I know from experience that the airport bus (Havas) has two routes: one goes to the central bus station and then my neighborhood and the other goes to directly to my neighborhood, Mavesehir. The former takes about 1 1/2 hours thus making the subway a better option. The latter is a nice ride and much better than the metro, especially with luggage. I also know that you have to ask the bus driver where he is going because the signs on the buses all say Mavesehir. Unfortunately, the bus driver said "yes" to Mavesehir but failed to mention that it would take a detour to the Otogar and drop off some friends along the way and be delayed due to terrible traffic. So, I wasn't really paying any attention when the bus finally stopped after 90 minutes, I was nowhere near home, and almost everyone got off the bus.
My heart immediately sank and I was imagining that I would have to figure out a way home from the bus station (and I was so tired that the "way" was probably going to be an expensive taxi.) By this time the bus driver was getting back on the bus and I stood to make sure he knew I was there (I didn't want to be left like the little kindergartners who fall asleep on the school bus) and I questioned "Mavesehir"?
A real friendly person at the front of the bus said, "yes" and motioned for me to join her. I grabbed my backpack and tried to put on my happy face and gear myself up for speaking Turkish after two weeks of German and English. Well, this friendly woman immediately jumped into English and told me she loves America and her son is a doctor in San Diego and she introduced me to her husband, who is a retired colonel in the Turkish Air Force and had trained in Texas and he loved Texas. There also happened to be one more man on the bus who also moved forward and joined us. He was Turkish but living in Austria as he told me in German. So we had a very pleasant ride that passed very quickly the rest of the way home. The combination of German some Turkish and English made for a pretty good conversation. And Ayten, my new friend and I exchanged numbers so I hope we will see each other again sometime soon. That was the "silver lining."
But there is usually a silver lining to everything if you look hard enough and the final leg of last night's bus ride was that silver lining. Let me backtrack a little. I know from experience that the airport bus (Havas) has two routes: one goes to the central bus station and then my neighborhood and the other goes to directly to my neighborhood, Mavesehir. The former takes about 1 1/2 hours thus making the subway a better option. The latter is a nice ride and much better than the metro, especially with luggage. I also know that you have to ask the bus driver where he is going because the signs on the buses all say Mavesehir. Unfortunately, the bus driver said "yes" to Mavesehir but failed to mention that it would take a detour to the Otogar and drop off some friends along the way and be delayed due to terrible traffic. So, I wasn't really paying any attention when the bus finally stopped after 90 minutes, I was nowhere near home, and almost everyone got off the bus.
My heart immediately sank and I was imagining that I would have to figure out a way home from the bus station (and I was so tired that the "way" was probably going to be an expensive taxi.) By this time the bus driver was getting back on the bus and I stood to make sure he knew I was there (I didn't want to be left like the little kindergartners who fall asleep on the school bus) and I questioned "Mavesehir"?
A real friendly person at the front of the bus said, "yes" and motioned for me to join her. I grabbed my backpack and tried to put on my happy face and gear myself up for speaking Turkish after two weeks of German and English. Well, this friendly woman immediately jumped into English and told me she loves America and her son is a doctor in San Diego and she introduced me to her husband, who is a retired colonel in the Turkish Air Force and had trained in Texas and he loved Texas. There also happened to be one more man on the bus who also moved forward and joined us. He was Turkish but living in Austria as he told me in German. So we had a very pleasant ride that passed very quickly the rest of the way home. The combination of German some Turkish and English made for a pretty good conversation. And Ayten, my new friend and I exchanged numbers so I hope we will see each other again sometime soon. That was the "silver lining."
Glad you got home safely and with at least a little joy! Hope you feel better really soon!
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