There really isn't anything interesting about the plane or the flight, it was just a normal British Airways passenger plane which we had to stay on for about 3 hours...it was fun and we could watch Saving Mr Banks if we wanted to. But anyways, the food they served was amazing!! It was proper hot food with 2 courses(ish) and it was only for a 3-hour flight! Although for some reason they didn't have a vegetarian choice, which was kinda stupid, so I gave my vegetarian friend a few of my potato pieces, because I'm just such a wonderful friend. But, carrying on, after the roast chicken & veg main and salad side, there was dessert. And OMG, BLISS!! It was banoffee cheesecake in a little pot, and it was so good!!!!
We also got to have a drink (of course), plus either coffee or tea. And, being the most loyal and patriotic British, my friends had tea, unlike me, who had coffee...oh well, I like coffee more, and don't judge me for it...
However, one thing I didn't like about the flight was the toilets...and I'm sure I'm not the only one who hates aeroplane loos... Ugh, they're seriously scary...when you flush it, you could literally feel air blowing in, which I don't understand, because shouldn't flushing a toilet suck things out, not blow things in?!
Well, enough with toilets, it's not a particularly nice subject to talk about. So once we finally arrived in Istanbul, I was so excited, and even more so when I realised I was going to get a visa, which meant a stamp in my passport!!!! I had never got one before, that I could actually remember, at least. So yeah, I got excited again (I'm very easily excited, in case you didn't realise) and was so happy when I got a stamp AND a sticker!! This excitement was short lived though when we decided to queue up for passport control - we had to walk about a mile or something to find the end of the queue...and to actually start queuing... All in all, it was VERY long and VERY tiring.
After taking my first breath of outdoor Turkish air, we got into a coach which was adorned with broken rusty seat-belts which were so bent and deformed...though thank god the rest of the coach wasn't quite so disused and disgusting. Even so, staying in a coach for 4 hours (and we were told it would be only 2 hours) - even longer than in the plane - was not something I was looking forward to. The view, however, was something to die for. Istanbul is gorgeous!!! There are the typical clayish-red houses which you can only find in places like Greece and Turkey, apartments and shopping centres a huge contrast, and in the background, there's the sea, which was so beautiful and calm today. So frickin gorgeous!!
All too soon, as you can probably tell from the pictures, The sun had set and it started getting darker...so no more pictures I'm afraid... Anyways, after about 2 hours of driving, we stopped at a service station where we were harassed by stray dogs and made to pay if we wanted to go to the toilet... I didn't have any change on me, so sadly I had to cross my legs and hope I could keep everything in...and laughing didn't help at all, not that I didn't love the laughs and giggles we shared! Anyways basically I was kinda really tired before, but then one of my awesome friends started talking about Hetalia and turning our own female Hetalia characters we made into male versions, and lol we were then talking about the pros and cons of being a man...and lol the fun times!!! On the subject of fun times, my friend also bought some mini salty fish-shaped crackers, a bit like Oddities, from the service station, which for a short time we actually thought were cat biscuits... But anyways we 'manned up' (lol) and decided to try them. And it tasted like cardboard!!! It was literally flavourless crackers, which was supposed to be salty... And, when we looked at the salt content, we found there was only 2.2g of salt per 100g...which is even much less than the amount of salt in bread (which is about 6g)!!!!!
After hours of nearly peeing my pants on the coach, we finally, at 11pm (Turkish time, 9pm English time) got onto the ferry and started crossing the bay, or whatever it is. It was one of those ferries which you drive the coach straight on, one of those (no offence) ugly ones. And I still had to keep my pee in, because apparently, the ferry toilet was rank...my poor bladder... But we were on the coach for 5 OR 6 HOURS, so it was good to finally get some fresh air. Also, even in pitch darkness, it was still pretty, the water was really dark but the lights of the city and towns in the distance looked amazing. This picture really does not do the view any justice, but it was the best I could get...the black areas are basically windows, and the lights going across are the lights of a town or something - underneath is the water and on top is the sky.
Still...we're going to reach the hotel at about 12 midnight (Turkish time of course) and we haven't had dinner, and to be honest, no one is going to be there to cook us anything. So I don't think we're going to have dinner...I'm sad :(
So it's later on, and it turns out that yes, we did get to the hotel at around 12, but no, thank god we did have dinner...and a mighty nice one I must say!!! It was a kinda buffet, and quite nice!! I'm shattered now though, so bye!!! Xxx
