My theme for this year’s challenge is places from around the world that I have visited on my travels.
Each place has a story attached too that I hope you will find amusing.
I start with the capital of Turkey, a place that I have visited twice and had a pretty stressful time on both occasions.
In 2014 we had the incident where the left luggage lockers had to be virtually completely dismantled for us to retrieve our rucksacks as the departure time for our train to Erzurum in Eastern Turkey approached rapidly. Click on Angst in Ankara for that little drama.
Some of you will be familiar with the 2009 incident that took place as we were due to catch a train to Adana for our onward journey to Aleppo in Syria. For newcomers to my blog, here is how the drama unfolded……
Calm Before The Storm
We had a four hour stopover in the Turkish capital so set off to explore. First we needed coins for the lockers, but were one short. Luckily an upright English teacher called Neil came to our rescue.
We were to meet again later in the journey but for now we headed off alone.
We expected a lot of the capital but were sadly disappointed. It was a bit of a dump to be honest and after two hours we returned to the station and killed time as best we could.
With forty minutes until the off, Hamish my travel companion, decided he wanted to buy a cake and an apple from the station kiosk for the journey. He sat down to pack the goods in his bag. No drama. Yet.
We decided to head to the platform in good time. A group of Turkish students then arrived onto our platform. We had met up with Neil again and in conversation, when one of the students interrupted us to ask if one of us was called Terry.
None of us were but were sufficiently intrigued to ask why. They replied that somebody had found a passport belonging to a Terry on the main concourse.
The students moved along the platform to ask some others and Neil announced that he reckoned it was a scam to get you to open your bag whilst you were pick-pocketed.
I felt into my bag anyway to be reassured that my passport was there. It was. I mentioned to Hamish that I had the name of my father in the back of my passport as an emergency contact and he was called Terry so it was good to be sure.
At that point Hamish remembered that he had his then girlfriend’s name Terri in his, so decided to check also.
It seemed like mere moments later that the entire contents of his day pack were on the platform. His diary, pens, the cake, the apple, camera, baseball cap but no wallet containing £300 and his passport. “Fu*k fu*k fu*k I’ve lost my passport.” At that point and with only twenty minutes to go before our train was due to depart, he raced down the platform steps and fled back to the station concourse.
I was stunned and could only pack his day sack and wait. And wait. And wait…………..
With five minutes to go to departure time, I was getting decidedly agitated. “What a prat losing his passport, the one thing that you guard above all others. Call himself a seasoned traveller? We are going to miss it! Maybe I should go on my own? No, I couldn’t do that. We will have to spend the night in this dump!”
These were the thoughts going on inside my head when with three minutes before D day, he resurfaced grinning from ear to ear and waving his passport. Phew!!!!
“I told you it would be OK,” said Neil. “Yes you did, thanks for that,” I replied.
No time for explanations, our train was pulling in. That was bloody close!
Ten minutes later in the restaurant car over a beer I fully learned what had happened.
A Fair Cop
He had rushed to the information kiosk in a mad panic, pushing the three people in the queue out of the way to blurt out that he had lost his passport and had it been handed in.
Luckily the lady behind the counter spoke English and was sympathetic to his plight, so pointed him in the direction of the station police.
He then charged to their office, where he was met with a burly policeman in his forties, who told him in no uncertain terms to calm down. Yes a wallet containing a passport had been handed in.
He then proceeded to ask Hamish his name. Hurst. H U R S T. Hurst. Hamish could see that it was his passport the copper was holding, but this did not stop him hyperventilating, even if the state of stress did reduce a notch or two. “Just give me my wallet and let me leave, I have a train to catch,” thought Hamish. But no, this policeman wanted to talk.
He leafed through all of the pages in the passport, stopping to examine every one of the numerous visas contained therein. He stopped at the Syrian one. “Aah, you go to Syria I see. When is your train?” “In ten bloody minutes!!” Hamish felt like screaming, though he actually answered very politely.
The reaction seemed to say ‘plenty of time then’, and he offered Hamish a cup of tea from his flask. As he had already poured it into a disposable plastic cup, Hamish had no choice but to accept. In the state he was in, he downed it in one, despite it being pretty hot!
“How much cash do you have in your wallet?” was the next question. Hamish knew exactly, £300. His answer was emphatic, leaving no room for any doubts, no abouts or approximatelies left his lips.
The policeman then proceeded to count the 10 twenties and 10 tens out very carefully and deliberately. “You are correct, £300.” At last he pushed the sacred bundle over to Hamish, “you were very lucky.” He retained a slight contact with the notes and hesitated, clearly a sign that he hoped for a reward. Hamish simply grabbed the notes, passport and wallet, gave his thanks and charged out of the room to his waiting and very relieved friend.
If it had not been for those students and if it had not been for me mentioning my Dad’s name in my passport, we may well have been none the wiser until we reached the Syrian border. Imagine that!
To celebrate his good fortune and to make up for my stress, beers were on Hamish tonight. Just a pity they only had gassy lager.
I’ve really enjoyed reading some of your story telling from your travels. Looking forward to more of your A to Z 🙂
Great story! Glad everything turned out ok.
Great story! Glad it turned out well. Our best stories always come from the things that go wrong. I don’t remember anything about the well executed trips in my life. The best adventure stories begin with, ‘Remember that time we spent the night in a condemned building in Germany?’ Cheers!
Absolutely agree. This tales still raise a chuckle every time we remember them.
I’d like to go to Ankara and to Istanbul but don’t think I ever will now – too dangerous!
Glad it ended well! We’ve been to Istanbul few times but not to Ankara so far…
what a great story! Glad it all worked out so well.
The first thing that comes to mind when I see Ankara is always going to the the traditional native material for making clothes in my country, before I remember it might be about Turkey. Your friend was lucky and I would have been very agitated too.
I can certainly live without that kind of stress on holiday! Can’t wait to see what comes next.
Keith Channing at http://keithkreates.com – A-Z Limericks
Loved your limerick! I have a few more scrapes coming on the A-Z!