Tag Archives: Turkish

Leaving America

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25.08.2017
Kristīne writing:

After night spent in Europe Hotel & Hostel modest apartments in San Francisco main drivers are to wake up pretty early to return the rental cars. Also we want to return to Walmart some stuff we bought during our trip. So Agnese, Imants, Salvis, Kristaps, Juris, Ilgonis and Daumants are on their way to Oakland while others may sleep longer this morning.

I use this possibility and wake up indecently late, after 9 a.m. Then packing of bags trying to push in more than there is free space. Luckily Juris has one bag he doesn’t need anymore. So I am finally done with packing all my belongings and souvenirs and snacks that I am going to take to Latvia. Check out is at 11 a.m., but we can leave our bags in one room the hotel provided us for longer. After that we have some free hours till leaving for airport. Me, Niks and Dace decide to go to Chinatown just to walk around and may be buy some (more) souvenirs.

At 2:30 p.m. we all gather to leave for airport. We go to Bart (train) because it’s quite comfortable and pretty cheap way to get straight to the airport. At the Bart station we say goodbye to Agnese. She is staying one more night in San Francisco and going to Riga through Los Angeles and Moscow. Seems to be longer way, but no – Agnese arrives in Riga only two hours later than we do.

In airport there is the usual crowd, luggage checking, passport control and safety control. I occur to be unlucky enough to make safety control officer suspicious that I am trying to bring a knife on board. Finally it turns out that the suspicious item is my flash memory drive. Safety officer kindly offers to pack my bag again, I kindly say no, pack it by myself and it’s done, I’m in.

After some waiting boarding to Istanbul is opened. We fly again with Turkish Airlines. It takes little more than twelve hours from San Francisco to Istanbul. Must admit during this flight I feel much better than in all my previous long flights. I even manage to sleep time to time. There are two meals during flight and free drinks. So everyone tries to spend his time as much comfortable as it possible by eating, drinking, watching films, playing games and of course sleeping. As we fly towards east we will arrive in Istanbul in August 26, little after 5.p.m. And it’s already another day and another story.

As for me August 25 is the day I really feel like my trip has come to its end. I feel little sadness, because no matter how long was the trip, it’s always not enough. But I really enjoyed it. And there will be other trips and new adventures as always.

The Long Day

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31.07.2017
Imants writing:

Second morning of our journey begins with decent breakfast offered by the Mercure hotel we stay in. Part of the Eclipse Tour team who took a rest last evening before going back to the airport take opportunity to explore hotel neighbourhood. Our shuttle bus arrives with 20 minutes delay but this is not an issue because we have plenty of time before upcoming flight.

After mandatory security checks and passport control procedure we are ready to fly to our point of destination. It is about 45 minutes left till boarding and some of it goes to do routine airport window-shopping. Most of the team lead to a remote gate where additional security checks are expected for people travelling to United States. And there is unpleasant surprise for us – security officer after checking Loreta’s documents announce that previously acquired ESTA is not valid because of passport number mismatch in both documents and she is not allowed to board. An hour remained until the end of the boarding is dedicated to resolve this issue. Unfortunately due to technical reasons Loreta is unable to acquire new ESTA and therefore she and Austris are forced to stay in Istanbul. It is severe loss for our team.

As we are heading to West the Sun is shining in the sky during all the twelve hours long flight. One can say that we have returned to past or had a special long last day of July as when we landed in San Francisco there is still 31 July. After the Customs and border control we meet Agnese who arrived just two hours later from L.A. Afterwards we take a public transport and go by groups to our accommodation sites. Could be that everyone is tired after such a long flight and needs to gain energy for next day when we are going to explore the city of San Francisco.

Agnese comments:
Later it was found out from the US embassy that Turkish Airlines had no right to deny the boarding because of missing ESTA. There always is a chance to acquire ESTA after landing in the US as it’s a very quick process (of course ESTA can be denied and then it’s not a quick process at all)

Riga – Istanbul

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30.07.2017
Juris writing:

This is the first leg of our journey. We are taking Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, spending the night there, and next morning- boarding our transatlantic flight to SFO.

That is tomorrow. Today we are gathering in RIX, some alone, some with family and kids and friends. Many individual paths coming together for almost a month, for the aim, and for the journey.

We are also leaving our group leader Agnese behind. But not because she has done something wrong. She is following the rest of us by different route through Moscow.

After couple of hours we find ourselves in Istanbul airport. After moderate wait, the airline bus takes us to hotel. For some of us this is it, for the day. Some still opt for a walk to seaside. They return at ~4 a.m., having walked ~20km. But that is already the next day in our blog.