My parents were on their way to come and visit us in Turkey. With the standoff between Carewell and the Turkish doctors I was able to take some leave from work to spend with my parents and family.
We travelled to Istanbul to fetch them from the airport. After their arrival we had to find a way to get to our guesthouse. We did not have private transport. We knew that the Metro trains were a good and fast option. In those days the Metro trains was still not connected to the airport and we had a short distance to cover to get to the Metro train station. It was just a bit too far to walk with all the luggage. The other option was to ask the taxi to take us the whole way. Getting into the taxi I was still undecided. As the taxi pulled out of the airport area, I told him to stop at the Metro station. It was still a few hundred meters to go. My request was not received well. It was clear that the taxi driver expected to travel a longer distance. He was so disgusted with me that he stopped right there and then and ordered us to get out! If it wasn’t so funny I would have been upset. We got out and he left at high speed leaving us to walk the last few steps to the Metro station. From the Metro station we took a 16 seater minibus taxi to our destination. That afternoon we took them on a ferry across the Bosporus and the next morning we travelled with a large bus to Ankara. Within a few hours they were exposed to public transport in Turkey – taxi, metro, minibus taxi, ferry and bus!
In Ankara the weather was still beautiful and we were able to take them to many of the parks and tourism sites. One morning we were travelling with a minibus taxi to the city center. When we got out, I did not noticed that my wallet had slipped our of my trouser pocket. We were just ready to walk off when the man sitting next to me called me back and handed me my wallet! Later the same day we were travelling in a large municipal bus. When we got off, the bus pulled away. I suddenly realized that I had left my wallet in the bus – again!
I instinctively called a taxi over and asked him to follow the bus. At the next stop I asked the taxi to wait. I ran to the bus and when I arrived and entered the bus, I saw the passengers passing my wallet from the back to the front! I was so relieved and ran back to the taxi to took me back to where Magda and my parents were waiting. They could not belief their eyes when I showed them my wallet with nothing taken from it!
We were able to take them to most of the touristic places in Turkey including Cappadocia, Pamukale, and Ephesus. We wanted to make the most of the opportunity because we were feeling uncertain about our future in Turkey.