Day 1 The wheels on the bus go round and round… 9April2010

April 9, 2010
I've written this, with blank spaces for pictures, but can't add the photos til we are back in the states!  Come back later to see the shots.



We got a solid 2 hours of sleep before waking up for departure from our house at 2:30 am. The trip to the airport was painless, and even though we woke Parker up for the adventure, he was a charm. Our friend rode along to take our car back home… And 3 hours later, he was still on the road. The airport is only about 1.5 hours from home, so he must’ve enjoyed the scenic route :) Boys don’t like to get told that they are lost. It’s nice to know our Lola Corolla is safe back in the driveway. We were Very early for our flight, so we set up camp.

At 6:30 hopped on a bus to get to the plane. Parker slept during takeoff. {}

There were lots of babies on the flight. In front of us was Paul—the dreamiest 2 year old I’ve ever met! He had brown eyes and curly blond hair. He kept kissing Parker and petting him, and playing peek-a-boo with us. We spoke baby together, saying “la la la” and “woof woof” and he even let me read a book to him. He shared his gummy bears with me, and played a card game with Daniel. I miss him already.

I think we flew over the Alps.

The Taurus mountains greeted us beside the Mediterranean Sea—this is the MOST BEAUTIFUL flight either of us has been on.

Parker slept during landing, too, so the ear-popping experience must not have been too bad.

The airport in Turkey was easy to navigate, I got to tell my friend Paul goodbye one last time, and we found our tour guide, Aktay (pronounced Oct-iiii) waiting for us outside. He keeps calling us Danielle and Jesseeca and Parcare. I love how all the Turkish people are saying his name. Anyway, guess how many people signed up for this guided tour. Did you guess? Two and a half. Yep, yours truly, the Wise family, is the only group here for this particular journey with this travel agency. At first it seemed a bit shady, but its actually like getting VIP treatment.

Now for the bad part of the day:

We were headed out to the shuttle bus and realized that we forgot to get the stroller from the baggage claim. Daniel headed back in and had to go through all sorts of gates (we do NOT speak Turkish, mind you) and about 15 minutes later he came out with the beloved baby cart. We headed to the lot expecting to see a bus. Aktay drove us to our hotel in a “shuttle” that is actually a silver minivan with no seat belts, and no baby seat, and we realized right away that stop signs don’t actually mean stop (they say DUR, which I find hilarious); and dotted lines in the road actually mean nothing.. And 2-lane streets often have 3 lanes of traffic in them; and speed limit signs are only there for reading material. I was freaking out from the first stop sign.

Daniel probably has bruises from me squeezing his leg each time I feared for our lives. We nearly sideswiped twice, and swerved a bit, and then we were speeding along, getting closer and closer to this obedient car in front of us in the right lane. I was trying to keep my mouth shut, but then we were just TOO CLOSE and I shouted “WOAH!” and then I guess Aktay woke up (seriously we were about 2 seconds from hitting the car) and he just :::SCREEEECH::: took a sharp left turn on the straight 3-lane highway, leaning us far right, then hitting my head on the left, and landing us in a median with two wheels in the grass on a curb about 9 inches high, and the rest of the van in the street. I held Parker tight and having Daniel beside me kept me from sliding anywhere, and somehow there were NO CARS In the other 2 lanes, and we were all OK. Parker didn’t even cry, but I sure thought about shedding some tears of my own. What if there had been cars in the left lanes? What if we had hit that car in front of us? What if I hadn’t been holding Parker? What if Daniel had been sitting on the other side of me? What if, what if, what if…. Breathe. We are all fine, and the only damage is my achy neck and a busted tire. God protected us and that’s all there is to it. Within seconds there were about 5 men around to help us. We were near an auto shop, so they had the tire changed and fixed within 30 minutes. We got to see the Turkish hospitality right away. We were given water, and chairs, and these 2 little kids were spying on us, and by this time there were probably 10 people coming to see what happened. I gave the kids cookies and they ran away with delight. Aktay said he was very sorry and didn’t know what happened. I was a bit ticked off, (because I know what happened but I’m not sure WhY it happened) but at the same time, So So happy that we were all OK. We couldn’t get another driver (this is what happens when you don’t know the language or the number to 911—seriously, its different in foreign countries—in Germany it’s 112). So away we sped, still too fast, with only One more minor incident with a large pothole causing a bit too much bounce and making me scared again, causing me to yell, “can you PLEASE slow down!!!”. We finally got to our hotel. We contemplated cancelling our guided tour and just staying on the semi-warm beach. But after much prayer and calming down and discussing it. We decided to have a good talk with Aktay tomorrow.

I think this whole incident has a purpose, but I’m not sure what it is yet. Maybe to remind me how fragile life is. Had there been another car beside us, we would not be alright. Had that happened, I would’ve spent my last full day with Daniel being cranky and snappy and stressed as we finished our packing. So we’ve realized it takes EFFORT to get along better than just OK but it is so worth it. He is my best friend, why do I take him for granted?

Back to the good parts:

After a short nap, we took ourselves on the short walk to the SEA!! IT was beautiful! Parker just STARED at the water, like he stares at men with goatees, but the ocean didn’t make him cry like facial hair does. He was studying it from the safety of Dada’s arms. The water felt cold in the afternoon sun. We sat out on chairs for a while, and I’m wondering if I’ll end up with a baby-shaped tan line.

Dinner was AMAZING. I loaded my plate(s) up. I suppose this all-inclusive deal is going to be an easy way for each of us pack on 10 pounds this week!

Everyone here speaks Turkish and Deutsch. Only a few know English. It’s weird feeling so foreign. But I am so glad to be here!