We woke up to the call to prayer once again. The gentleman chanting over our small town minaret’s loudspeaker seems a bit more chill than the ones in Istanbul. Yesterday afternoon, we heard him receiving a cell phone notification and his chanting seemed to abruptly end. A short time later we set out on the road to find a different vantage point of the balloons.
It seemed that they were floating in a different direction today, but again — does anyone ever have control? Some seemed like they were actually rubbing against each other as they drifted off toward an unknown fate.
We kept driving a little bit to keep up with their movement, which was not too difficult. The sun finally began to rise over the terrain, but the temperature was slow to warm our bodies. After a little bit, we went down the road a little bit to a place called Pigeon Valley, where we saw some more rock formations and got a good view of the town of Uchisar catching the sun’s early morning light. After taking a few pictures, we returned to our hotel for a massive breakfast.
It is also perhaps worth noting that the earthquake that occurred yesterday or the day before did not affect us in this part of the country. We were not even aware that one had happened until both of our parents inquired about it with clenched sphincters.
After breakfast, we made a brief stop at Goreme National Park, where we did a little bit of hiking down into some of the formations. The wind made the temperature feel quite chilly, even though the sun felt warm and intense. It was very difficult weather to dress for. Eventually we made our way back up to the rim and our rental car.
We then drove for the next hour to get back to Kayseri. It’s strange to think that most people don’t rent a car in Cappadocia which seems very limiting. I would feel quite trapped, and I’m glad we had some flexibility to choose our own adventure.
We got to the airport about two and a half hours before our flight. It was a small terminal with just one gate, so there wasn’t a lot to do to pass the time. Boarding happened quickly. Soon we were on the short flight back to Istanbul. Upon arrival, we had to get our luggage, get a covid test, get dinner, and check in to our hotel located in the terminal. Our bags arrived much faster than our previous arrival in Istanbul. We found the Covid testing site fairly easily, registered, got swabbed in the throat and nose, and were out of there in ten minutes with sore nasal passages to prove it. We would get our results less than four hours later — the fastest turnover by far for any of the nine covid tests I have taken.
Covid testing inside an airport is a novel (and simple) idea, yet few places in the world are doing it. Decisions like this are just one example of how Turkey differs from my own country. While it is true that Turkey had one of its worst days last week, its numbers are relatively nothing compared to anywhere in the United States. Turkey’s worst day on record for the entire country is comparable to the number of daily cases currently happening in Los Angeles County. In response to those numbers, Istanbul is preparing to revert to measures that were imposed back in the spring. As of right now, I can’t imagine anywhere in the U.S. reimposing any measures that have already been relaxed.
As a working airline pilot in the United States, we are asked to check a box saying that we are in good health each day before we fly. . .and that’s pretty much it. There are no testing requirements, and zero temperature checks in the airports or to board the aircraft. Furthermore, the prospect of having to get your temperature taken to go into a store or mall would be a very foreign concept. And that’s why we are currently in a foreign country.
Turkey just seems to be handling it a lot better based on our firsthand experiences. So when people say, “What else could the United States have done?” I mean . . .a lot. Literally anything would have probably been better than our lackluster and inconsistent response. Nicole and I had our temperatures taken to go to the Grand Bazaar, enter mosques, visit the spice market, check in to hotels, and board aircraft. Even the really crappy hotel the first night in Cappadochia took it pretty seriously. In the entire time I’ve been put up in a hotel in the United States this last year, I have not had my temperature checked once. And while I realize that one can have the virus and not have a fever, it doesn’t mean such temperature checks are pointless. Furthermore, people actually wear their masks. And while they don’t always wear them correctly, it has not been made into some sort of bizarre political statement. Whether in Istanbul or out in the country, people were wearing masks. All backgrounds, ages, environments — masks, even when it didn’t seem necessary. People whose only social contact is with sheep were wearing masks. Two year olds were wearing masks. People driving cars by themselves were wearing masks.
Meanwhile in America, someone’s crazed relative is pounding on the keys (in all caps of course) to remind everyone on facebook that, “TURKEY IS FULL OF MUSLIMS AND THEY’RE BAD PEOPLE, SO IF THEY’RE WEARING MASKS, MASKS ARE BAD! ITS MY RIGHT TO SHOW MY FAAAAACE! DONT BE SHEEP! MASKS ARE MUZZLES! OBAMA CREATED THE VIRUS! HOW DO I ATTACH A PHOTO>!>!>!>”
Footnote: I wrote the majority of this blog on the flight back to Istanbul, including the above all caps fake rant. I could not have imagined that we would meet a real life Karen* that night at the airport hotel’s restaurant. *Karens, for those who don’t know, are people who act entitled, loud, often exhibit racist behavior, sometimes brandish a firearm, and are predominantly white. The moment we set foot in the restaurant I said, “Gosh, that woman sure is loud. It’s like you can spot the American from a mile away.” This person had sidled up next to two young British gentlemen who were trying to do some work and proceeded to yell about all sorts of random things. Something about oil in Alaska was mentioned, something about the virus being propaganda was mentioned, and a whole slew of other wacky things that presumably were from some sort of conspiracy theorists handbook (all of these things being very loudly stated). It was very distracting to read the menu. Shortly thereafter, the staff kicked her out of the restaurant . . .AND the hotel. I guess she’d been causing issues for not just the hotel employees, but had been denied boarding by Turkish Airlines. She kept yelling at the poor hotel workers about this, who to their credit were quite calm, but this woman was clearly looking for a fight anywhere she could find it. While she was being removed from the restaurant, she threatened to call Donald Trump. This statement brought laughter from the entire restaurant (because we could all hear her very clearly).
After she had finally been escorted out, one of the British guys looked over at us and said, “If she comes back, I’m sending her your way!” Karen’s outburst basically was the icebreaker that brought the entire restaurant together. A Brazilian and an American lady on the other side bonded over having both been to Bosnia, the British guy was flabbergasted that Nicole and I had come from Tanzania, and we all sort of shared our travel plans with each other. Serbia, Croatia, Libya, Emirates. It became a sort of United Nations of travelers trying to avoid their homelands. So with that, I leave you with this pearl of wisdom: indoor voices are always a better choice.
passports & pepto bismol 