Istanbul -- Day 1

So I'm in Istanbul.  Yup.

The flights over were, as is not usual for us, eventful, thanks to an elaborate surprise.

This summer, I'm interning at a software company in Bermuda.  Because I was doing a project with P2C, my summer was already six weeks shorter, so when I applied for the internship my parents and I agreed that asking about an extra two weeks off during said internship would be shooting myself in the foot.  However, after being accepted and while finalizing things, the company asked if I wanted to take any vacation time.  I decided to take the opportunity, and my mom decided that, as my dad was disappointed that my brother Jordan and I weren't coming, surprising him with this would be a great Father's Day gift.  The initial plan was that we'd give him a card on Father's Day telling him that I was coming, but that was far too tame.  The whole thing quickly spiralled into an elaborate ruse to get all the way to London (the first stop on our journey to Istanbul) without him knowing that I was coming along.  After several revisions and ideas, the final plan was as described below.

First, my luggage.  That was packed up and secretly picked up by my grandparents while we were out of the house (having just gotten home from Montreal it was easy to hide my packing).  Then, on Sunday when we left, I drove them to the airport.  I brought my camera along, the excuse being that I was going to go to Cooper's Island to get some shots in the light of the setting sun as it's near the airport, which is not near our house.  I dropped them off at the terminal, said my farewells (the clincher being when my dad hugged me goodbye and said "I wish you were coming with us"), and departed to get my pictures.

My grandparents were waiting about two minutes away from the airport with my luggage.  I rendezvoused with them and waited for my mom to text me to confirm that they were through security and in the British Airways executive lounge (my dad flies a lot...).  This was my cue to return, check in, get through security, and go to a predetermined corner in the departures lounge that is not visible from anywhere my dad would be going.  After this, it would be relatively simple to board well after my dad, and, as he was sitting in the front of the plane, I'd just slip through on the opposite aisle to the back of the plane (we were careful to get him a window seat up front).

But then things started to go wrong.  While in the airport, my dad started to push back on the idea of him sitting up front with Charlotte...he loves to give away his first class tickets to us and just sit in the back.  If he was in the back, we did have a back-up plan, but we'd have preferred not to use it.  Fortunately this was resolved.  Then, the gate counter was changed to a spot we had not expected...in plain view of where my hidden corner was.  As he got to the counter I could see him clearly...I was cowering in my corner hoping that he wouldn't look my way.  My family, with him, did manage to keep him looking at them (specifically away from me), and after a few tense, heart-pounding minutes, the danger had passed.  The "last" step in the surprise was to get through business class and to my seat without him seeing.  I hoisted my camera bag on my shoulder and after causing a brief delay with the flight attendant (thus clearing the aisle ahead of me) I was able to briskly walk through the cabin and get to my seat safe and sound.  At this point we were successful; we just wanted to get me on the plane without him knowing.  Being able to pick and chose when to reveal myself was just icing on the cake.

When we got to London, all I was supposed to do was walk out, catch up with them before immigration, tap him on the shoulder, and ask if he had my passport.  I was way behind the rest of the family on the plane, so that wasn't going to be a problem.  Until I walked out of the tunnel, rounded the corner and saw my family gathered by the restrooms.  Way too early for the surprise.  Luckily, there was an airport cart and I was able to duck behind it while I waited for them to start moving (and get weird looks from the guy sitting in said cart).  Finally they started walking, and I started to move to catch up with them, carefully dodging the glances my dad gave back towards my family who was slightly tailing him.  As we moved around another corner I was able to catch up, reach forward, and tap his shoulder.  The look on his face was priceless!  He was standing in the middle of my laughing family, completely confused and shocked.  I tried to film it but alas, the iPhone slipped down in my shirt pocket and nothing was visible, but one can hear my dad's confusion.  "Holy smokes!  What is going on??  Good grief!  You scared the life out of me!"  We spent a while afterwards explaining to him how this all came about.

The only sad thing about this story is that I think it will be a while before I ever get a chance to pull off a ruse as elaborate as this.


On to the first day in Istanbul.  Most of the day was spent trying to figure out transit arrangements and acquiring transit cards...the latter of which never actually happened due to credit card issues.

A thrilling day in Istanbul

After much time spent on this, we eventually decided to modify our plans for the day and spend our time walking down a touristic street with many local attractions and other such...stuff.  As it is late and most of this is self-explanatory through the images...I'll let them speak for themselves.

Taksim Square

Monument in the square

Eastern Orthodox church

Making tradition Turkish food, similar to crepes

Us in the same restaurant as the above image.

A Roman Catholic church

And thus was day 1.  We saw the protests starting up as we were heading home, but that's normal enough.