Surprise!, or Day 19 of the Epic May Adventure

Whoever decided to call this the "Epic May Adventure" (*cough* Abdalla *cough*) cursed me with endless excitements to my trip.

This morning started off nice enough. I got up in time to spend an hour at the Turkish Islamic Arts Museum, staring at rugs and porcelain.

I get to the airport at 11:30 or so, 2.5 hours early for the flight I'm supposed to be on. Last night I looked at the strike details, checked my e-mail, and looked to see the status of the flight number I had for the Istanbul-London flight, and it was still running just fine.

I didn't check the London-Seattle flight... the fact that it was canceled might have tipped me off.

So I get to the airport, pick up my bag, try to check in... and the guy at the counter says that I'm not on this flight. That I missed my flight. That my flight was 8am this morning.

No way, I say. I have this piece of paper that shows my flight as being at 2pm. I wasn't notified of anything!

Well, he says. Let's get this fixed.

So, with me close to tears (what is it about airports and me crying these days?), I go over and they booked me a flight for tomorrow morning. That will get into Seattle (insh'Allah) at 16:45.

Meanwhile, another lady who also got screwed by them and I are spending the day at a nice 5-star hotel. We ate at the lunch buffet, then I decided to chill for a while before trying to hit the pool. (The hotel is pretty darn far from the rest of Istanbul, so I'm not going to even try to do any sight-seeing, which is for the best.)

I get to the pool, and they charge me $3.50 (5 TL) for a swim cap that I'm required to wear but that doesn't fit on my head. I just took a long bath instead and moped.

Yes. I am not in a good mood. I posted on Facebook that I'd rather be traveling stuck between the fattest, sweatiest people than be here. And after five months of being away from home (and only having a handful of days back in Washington before jetting off to Pittsburgh), one day does make a difference.

But I'll keep looking on the bright side, if I must. We had a lovely dinner on the top floor, looking at the sunset and finishing with a delicious fried banana dessert. I might get a chance to see a friend in London now that my stopover is four hours instead of two.

And I get a huge room and bathroom all to myself. It could be much worse... but I would rather be home.