Winter is Coming

A Game of Thrones voice plays in my head. Winter is coming. Literally and figuratively. It is only the middle of March and Edmonton will still be cold. We had booked our flights in a rush and now we had to sort out a few other things before we arrived home.

We had already called my parents to let them know we were heading back. They were still in the US and were looking to return in the next few days as well. In order to make this one year trip viable we had rented out our home for the year. So this meant we were essentially homeless as our tenant would be occupying our place until the end of June. Luckily my parents are amazing and have enough space to accommodate us… in their basement. Time to start our own TV show?

We needed a vehicle. Andre had loaned his car to a friend for the duration of our trip. My car had spent a few months in my parents’ garage and the winter months parked in our friend Swerda’s garage. We have two stalls at our condo but our renter had one and the other we rented out while we were gone. I had put a special additive in the gas tank before I left and had it hooked up to a trickle charger. In the past when we had gone away on short holidays I had come back to a dead battery. It’s a 2015 Impreza and I love it, but I find it infuriating that it can’t sit a few weeks without being plugged in. I’ve been told it’s the tech that drains it but I think that’s ridiculous. It’s not that high tech. I used to leave my VW for months at a time and never had an issue. Anyway, we needed a vehicle to get home so I Skyped my insurance company while waiting for our flight out of Amman in order to put my full coverage back on. That way Swerda could drive my car out to the airport and park it for us. Then we could simply drive ourselves to my parents’ house since we couldn’t be in contact with anyone and would need to isolate for the next few weeks.

Flights

Amman, Jordan to Ankara, Turkey

Our first flight was to Ankara, Turkey. Waiting to check in for our flight we could already see people having trouble. Some people were being turned away because they didn’t have all their information completed. Depending on where you were from or had traveled through you may have been required to fill out a medical information sheet. The check in lady handed a few people forms and waved them over to another area to complete them. Some flights were cancelled because other airports were no longer accepting flights from the area. Some passengers were unable to board their flights because they had visited countries in the last fourteen days that were now deemed “high risk” and the destination country would no longer accept them. You could feel the stress.

We met a lady from Poland who could not get a flight back because of the restrictions and now had to fly into Ukraine and then overland to get home. We were just happy that our flight was still a go and we hadn’t had any issues checking in. We were off to Turkey the day before the airport in Amman shut down.

Ankara, Turkey to Istanbul, Turkey

Arriving in Turkey we went through thermal cameras and they looked at our passports very thoroughly. We had no issue getting through immigration and went to grab our bags. We no longer needed the hotel room we had tentatively booked for the night but discovered we couldn’t get online to cancel it because there was no wifi we could connect to. In order to sign up for the airport wifi you need to have a Turkish SIM card. The room needed to be canceled ASAP to avoid losing our money. Luckily a guy saw us struggling with our phones while waiting for our bags and allowed us to hotspot off of him. We had to strap on our packs because we didn’t have currency needed to hire a luggage trolley. I was not loving the airport. It was definitely not friendly to foreigners. The people were insanely friendly though.

While we waited for our next flight to Istanbul we had a really nice dinner in the airport and a surprisingly good glass of wine. Things were going well. We still needed to get onto the wifi in order to secure our next room for the night. Conveniently right by our gate there was a Starbucks and we were able to connect. We booked a room a few minutes from the airport we were to depart from… which turned out to be a different airport from the one we were flying into. Oops. We were in such a state trying to book flights to get home that we didn’t notice that there were two airports in Istanbul and we would need to drive one hour to reach the one we would be flying out of. Whatever. At this point that was the least of our concerns.

During our flight (which had been delayed an hour and a half) we got chatting with a fantastic flight attendant who was super happy to help us and gave us tips on the best way to get from A to B. People in Turkey were unbelievably helpful so far and we hadn’t left the airport.

Once we arrived we tried to catch the airport shuttle bus to the other airport where we could grab a cab to our hotel that was right nearby. Unfortunately a few friendly locals told us we had just missed it and it would be another half hour wait. It was cold, dark, raining, and windy. Another helpful person showed us a sheltered spot where we could wait. There were two other girls also heading in our direction so after a few minutes we decided to share a taxi and get on with it.

Our taxi driver was the best hands free driver we had encountered yet. He kept the car pretty much in the correct lane as he scrolled through photos on his phone to show Andre, who was seated in the front seat. I was in the back with the two girls who were clearly concerned about the fact that he was not attending to the road. I wasn’t the slightest bit concerned. When it came to drivers, he was in the top tier of drivers from the last eight months. We had become completely desensitized.

Istanbul, Turkey to London, England

The hotel in Istanbul had been delightful and we had slept well. We were ready to get in and out of London. The US had now stopped accepting flights from London so we were once again thankful that we had been able to purchase flights directly to Canada. Our flight was about a half hour late but other than that it was smooth sailing. Another flight down, two more to go.

London, England to Toronto, Canada

We had a short wait before our next flight and while we were lined up to get our boarding passes (they couldn’t print them in Turkey for some reason) we met a super obnoxious fellow. You could see he was itching to talk to someone. Somehow we got into a conversation with him and another couple about protocols at the airports and the latest news on coronavirus. He was a real know-it-all and just wouldn’t shut up with his fear mongering. At one point he actually told us that coronavirus could be spread through farts and that he had academic papers on it that we could read. That line could not have moved fast enough. I prayed that he wasn’t going to be seated next to us on our flight.

We boarded the plane and I cued up yet another movie. I hadn’t had the attention span to read or write my blog. I just wanted mindless distraction. I think the movie had been on for a solid 30 minutes before I realized we were still on the tarmac. We hadn’t moved. This was a bit unsettling. Eventually the pilot came on and apologized for the delay. There had been a man on the plane who had a dry persistent cough and they felt it best to remove him and then had to find his luggage in the undercarriage. They assured everyone that he would likely be fine and would be on a flight the following day. I wasn’t so sure about that.

The crew were fantastic and I spent a little while talking with one of the flight attendants who shared some of her experiences with me. She said that she felt that overall male travelers were having a harder time of things. Perhaps, she speculated, because men are problem solvers and this left them feeling helpless. We discussed the future of the airline, layoffs they had been told would be coming in the next week, how coronavirus could change things for the better, resetting ourselves now that our “busy” lives would be absent of so many daily tasks.

We hadn’t been able to get a clear answer at Heathrow as to whether our bags would go straight through to Edmonton. I have learned to never entirely trust whatever I’m told about baggage. We have traveled a lot and there have been many times when we have been told the wrong information regarding bags and transfers. The lady we had talked to was pretty sure we had to pick up our bags in Toronto. We had packed overnight stuff in our carry on luggage just in case. By the time we were standing at the carousel we had been up for over 24 hours and were feeling exhausted. Bags were already on the belt before we got to it and more were slowly sliding down to do the loop. One woman must have been traveling with a large group because she had to have pulled off a good dozen bags. Actually more like dragged off. All of them were enormous and I was waiting for one to take her down, but she held her ground. Barely. After that minor bit of entertainment ended I remembered I was dead tired and started to question if we really were meant to grab our luggage. A few other passengers were also waiting around and they also looked skeptical. We exchanged a few looks of uncertainty and then Andre went to find someone from the airline. Turns out our bags did not need to be collected after all. So after wasting half an hour standing around we called our hotel for our free pickup. It would ring and ring and then disconnect. Fantastic. After trying a few times we said screw it and jumped in a cab. The hotel was 4 km from the airport and cost twenty dollars.

When we arrived there was nobody at the front desk. When a woman finally appeared we told her that no one had answered the phone and we’d had to take a taxi from the airport. She asked if we had called the right number. Yes. Then she asked if we had been disconnected… that was exactly what happened and her very specific question told us she knew exactly why we hadn’t gotten through. So we asked her if there had been ongoing problems with getting calls. She said no and acted like it was a just a random guess she had made out of thin air. Andre then called her on it and asked why she would ask about being disconnected if it had never been an issue. She had a very vacant look in her eyes that reminded me a great deal of Kylie from Fantastic Mr. Fox.

 

Talking to her was painful. We asked to set up a ride for the following morning. She explained that in the morning in order for us to catch the shuttle back to the airport we would have to give them 20 minutes notice. The shuttle came every 30 minutes but we should give them 20 minutes notice. So there was no set times? Apparently not. I couldn’t nail her down on this. So could we just call down in the morning to give them the 20 minute heads up? No, we would need to physically come down to the desk so that so she could phone them and then wait down there. I foolishly tried to explain how that made no sense whatsoever and asked what the difference was between calling down and asking in person and why we would have to sit in the lobby for 20 minutes rather than relax in our room. I should not have expected any answers to such logical questions. I was too tired for this nonsense.

We went up to our room, had a shower, and immediately went to bed. I was done with the day.

Toronto to Edmonton

After 5 hours of sleep we woke up and quickly got ready to catch the shuttle back to the airport. I called down because I refused to believe that I actually had to appear in person at the front desk. I recognized her voice immediately and rolled my eyes. I told her we needed the shuttle and would be ready in half an hour. To which, as you can guess, she replied that I would need to come down to the lobby. I actually went for it again. I just couldn’t help myself. The conversation got me nowhere of course and I only succeeded in raising my blood pressure. So ten minutes later I headed downstairs to formally let her know in person that we would like to get the shuttle to the airport.

It was a relief to board our final flight and know that we would be home soon. We touched down in Edmonton on Tuesday, March 17th around noon. Our good friend Swerda and his girlfriend Amanda had parked my car at the airport and stocked us up with some bottled water for the way home. We had grabbed some milk, snacks and a sub from Subway in the airport area and proceeded home for our “suggested” 14 day isolation. I enjoyed the notice stuck to the counter in Subway.

The Overall Travel Experience

I have to say that all the flight crews from the various airlines we flew were wonderful. There was definitely a certain level of stress flying home and the crew did their best to make things comfortable. The energy of passengers could be tense, and some people were on high alert. I have allergies and sometimes they act up when I fly so I took some meds and hoped for the best. I did not want to be sniffling or sneezing. Any sign of illness was not going to be received well. On some flights a sparse few people wore masks, on others the majority were masked and some even had plastic gloves on. Many people were furiously wiping down their arm rests and tray tables. On most of the flights announcements were made about how they were taking extra precautions and they explained the cleaning and safety measures they were taking. When there were less passengers on board they were keeping people spread out which was great. We were very fortunate that none of our flights were cancelled and we had a fairly seamless trip back home. Many friends we had met along the way were not as fortunate.

Killing Time – Movies Worth Watching

Like I said, I had plans to write during our journey home but I just couldn’t get into it. Instead I watched movies. I enjoyed all of them. So if you haven’t seen these yet they are worth watching. Woman Walks Ahead, The Kindergarten Teacher, Bombshell, The Goldfinch, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. And so began what would turn out to be weeks of binge watching movies and shows on Netflix.

256 days in… 109 days short of our year long adventure. Not the ending we had hoped for. We had missed our friends and family a lot and the one thing we were super excited for after the full year ended was spending time with those people. Now this would not be possible. It was a surreal feeling being home and still feeling a million miles away from everyone we loved.

Let’s check out… the living room. Join us next time to hear all about our 14 day quarantine!