“Kindness is like snow – It beautifies everything it covers.”
Kahlil Gibran
A few years ago, we left our house in Massachusetts at 6:50 am for an 8:15 flight to JFK and a connection to Turkey. We arrived in Istanbul 9 hours after we left New York at 5:50 am. (There is a 7-hour time difference so it was 10:50 pm at home.) At Ataturk International Airport we found the process for visas ($20 each upon arrival) quite easy, as was the passport control. Unfortunately, our luggage didn’t show up on the carousel. We spent the next 2 and 1/2 hours at the Turkish Air office waiting. Our problem was translated with the help of a nice Turkish guy who had been living in Pennsylvania. (His luggage was also lost but finally showed up.) We filed a report and left the address of our hotel, which was 300 miles west of Istanbul. Then we caught an Atlas Air flight to the city of Izmir.
At the airport in Izmir, we got an exchange rate of 1.80 Turkish Lire to the dollar then went to pick up our rental car. It was prepaid except for the one-way drop-off charge and the transponder fees. When we gave the person at the desk our Cap One Visa to pay for the extra charges however, the card was rejected. I immediately called Capital One thinking that, though I had reported our travel plans, there had been a miscommunication. However, they told me there had been some questionable charges in New York the day before, including one for over $2,000 at an electronics store! It appeared that our card number had been hacked at JFK, and the card had to be cancelled! Luckily, we had a Mastercard to pay the rental company but we worried about the hotels we had reserved with Visa. We needed a new card ASAP but whether or not it would arrive promptly through the Turkish mail system was a problem. The guy I talked to, named Ulisses, was difficult to deal with. He said he would issue an emergency card to the next hotel we would be staying at for at least 5 nights. That would be our second hotel in Fethiye. I offered to give him the address but he insisted that I call him the day before we were heading there. Not sure why.
Eventually we left Izmir in our rental Fiat Albea and headed south to Selçuk, about an hour away. The highway was good, save for the fact that cars and trucks in the right lane seemed to crawl, and 1 truck even backed up! (We passed a Pavese-type overpass restaurant that had a Burger King.)
In Selçuk, most of the streets were unmarked, making it difficult to find the Hotel Rìlican. We finally got assistance from a guy who led us there on his motorcycle. The hotel was up a narrow hilly street that appeared to be residential. We pulled over onto their postage- stamp-sized parking area and rang the bell. The manager was pleasant and assured us that we could leave our car there. Inside, the place was lovely—3 balconied levels hung with grape leaves overlooking a garden and with a panoramic view of the town. The room was sparse but comfortable and, after checking in and informing the manager of our luggage situation, we crashed at 1:23 pm and slept for 18 hours straight! It was a combination of traveling for over 24 hours without sleep and the stress.
In the morning, we got up around 7:30 fully refreshed physically but still worried about the luggage and credit card. We had to put on the same clothes we traveled in. (It was very hot and my husband Walter was especially uncomfortable in his jeans and long-sleeve shirt. At least I had a lightweight cotton dress.) We had a nice breakfast on the rooftop terrace. Afterwards, we got the WIFI password, checked the Visa, Mastercard and AT&T transactions online, then we drove a few miles to Ephesus.
Ephesus is one of the largest ancient Greco-Roman complexes that we have seen and it was teeming with tour groups from all over the world. Lots of restoration work was being done by an Austrian archaeological group in cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of Culture. There seemed to be especially lots of Japanese and German tourists. (One older German guy had a strange T-shirt with a picture of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns and a soldier holding a cigar that Jesus appeared to be smoking.)
After a few hours exploring, we drove back into the center of Selçuk and parked by the market. We bought some rolls, cheese, and fresh figs. (We were able to order the cheese with the help of a Turkish woman who spoke German. She said she had worked in Bonn for 35 years and sometimes visited her son, German daughter-in-law, and grandchild in Munich.)
Back at the hotel, we had our lunch at a small table on our balcony. We also had bottled water that we purchased at a small store not far from the hotel.
After lunch, we gave the paperwork for the luggage to the hotel manager and he called the Turkish Air office at the Istanbul airport for us. He managed to find out that our luggage had been shipped to Izmir the night before but they hadn’t made an effort to deliver it to our hotel. There seemed to be a communication gap about where and when we could pick it up. He was to call back later to Izmir.
He kept trying all afternoon but kept getting a busy signal. In the meanwhile, we called Capital One again. This time, a guy named Chuck was more sympathetic and seemed more “with it.” It was, he said, better to have our new regular card rather than an emergency card, which was paper. He suggested that they mail it to our home since they couldn’t send it abroad. Then we should have a family member express it to us overnight via Fedex or UPS. It was a plan.
By late afternoon, the manager still had no success reaching Turkish Air in Izmir, so he said he would take us back to the Izmir airport in the morning and help us navigate the system. In the meanwhile, Walter filed an online complaint with Turkish Air and asked them to expedite delivery to us at the hotel. It would be a lot of driving if we had to backtrack to Izmir before heading south to our next hotel in Fethiye, about 4 hours away.
In the evening, we walked down the hill into the town center—lots of cafes, restaurants, shops, etc. We went to Selççuk Köftecisi for dinner. (Kofte means meatball. They are not round though— look like flat footballs.) We had to go to the counter and pick out our meat (lamb “shish” for Walter and chicken “shish” for me). They served it with a tomato-flavored rice, grilled tomato, onion, and a green that looked like a type of lettuce but had a slight bite to it (very tasty). There was also a very hot pepper (long and green). Our drinks were Efes pilsen bira (nice and cold). Though the country is mostly Muslim, (calls to prayer are heard a number of times a day) beer was popular and people seemed to disregard the prayer calls. Dress was modern for the most part too. After dinner, we stopped at a small supermarket and bought Dove soap. (All of our toiletries were in our luggage.) Back at the hotel, we had another beer on the rooftop terrace and the owners wouldn’t let us pay for them!
We woke to another sunny day and another nice breakfast on the roof terrace. The manager was able to contact Istanbul again, and they assured him that the luggage was in Izmir. The question was whether it was at the airport or with a contractor.
As we were talking, some German guests were leaving and the manager greeted them in German. It turns out that he used to work in Bayreuth near Nurnberg and his German is better than his English. He proceeded to explain his phone conversation in German to us, saying all the people in Istanbul luge (lie). He was waiting for the general manager of Turkish Air to call him back.
Yay! The luggage was at the Izmir airport for sure and Ixsan, the hotel manager, drove us in our rental car to pick it up. While we were riding, we learned that he had been a cook at a big hotel in Bayreuth, his son-in-law is an English teacher in Selçuk, and his first grandchild was one month old.
Success! We got our luggage. Thank God that Ixsan was with us though. There was no one at the airport information desk and he had to telephone. Eventually, 2 people arrived and took Ixsan and Walter inside. (I waited outside because only 2 people were allowed entry.) About 5 minutes later, Walter and Ixsan came out pulling our bags. I was so excited that Ixsan gave me a big hug, and I thanked him in 3 languages!
On the drive back to the hotel, Ixsan pointed out the speed radar cameras and advised us to be aware on our drive south. Back at Hotel Rilican, (Ixsan made the round-trip in 1 hour, 45 minutes), Walter paid Ixsan for the telephone calls and for our drinks from the night before, plus a little extra. (Our transponder had taken care of the tolls and Walter paid for the airport parking.) Ixsan’s younger daughter showed us pictures of her older sister with her new baby named Efes (yes, like the local beer). We thanked Ixsan one more time then got into the car, finally wearing clean clothes, and headed south, feeling fortunate for having met this stranger who went out of his way to help us.