Our First Trip 1997: Getting There

Kubi was 2 months old for his passport photo.  I had to lay him on a blanket on the floor for them to take his picture.  (Kubi was 5 months old when we ended up going to Turkey.)

Nev and I had been married less than a year when he got his 2-month sabbatical from work.  We decided to take a five-week trip to Turkey near the end of August so his family could meet Kubi and me.  Nev hadn't been back to Turkey for over five years, so it was as exciting for him as it was for me.

There are no direct flights from Portland to Turkey.  We ended up flying to Chicago and then taking Turkish Airlines to Istanbul where Nev's brother Mustafa picked us up to drive us to Ankara where Nev's mom lived.

I had never flown internationally before, let alone with an infant.  Chicago O'Hare Airport was a zoo.  It was so enormous and took us a while to find our way around.  They had interesting toilets, though.  The toilet seats had a plastic protector that looked like plastic wrap.  When you pressed a button, the plastic rotated along the seat to the back where it gets removed or cleaned or something.  I have never seen anything like it before or since.

I love Turkish Airlines.  The food is good.  Not Turkish, but good.  And you get a lot.  They also give you little gift packs with toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, eye mask, and socks.  The service is superb.  The flight attendants spoke Turkish to Nev and English to me.  Every time they went by, they would play with Kubi.  We got seats in the bulkhead section and they gave us a little bassinet that fit on the wall, so Kubi could sleep comfortably and we didn't have to hold him the entire trip.  Nev and I wished they had bassinets in our size.  The flight attendants let us keep our stuff on the floor in front of us where it was handy.  I was surprised that they didn't ask us to stow our carry-ons in the overhead bins during take-off.  I'm sure they would do so now.

Turkey is ten hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.  We left our house at 4 AM on August 22nd.  When we arrived at Istanbul at 10:15 AM August 23rd Turkish time, we had been traveling 20 hours.

Kubi was a hit with the airline attendants.  We got off last, so it would be easier.  While we were getting our stuff together, a woman attendant snatched Kubi up.  When I got him back, he had lipstick kisses on his face.  While we were waiting in line to get our passports stamped, several people in line came over to talk to him.  Nev had no trouble getting visas for Kubi and me.  He used his Turkish passport, so he didn't need a visa.

All of our luggage made it to Turkey except for Kubi's umbrella stroller.  Back in Chicago, we were told to leave the stroller in the hall outside the entrance to the plane.  We assumed they would check it for us, but it didn't make it on the plane.  However, if we were going to lose anything, the stroller was the most expendable.  The least expendable was the small blue suitcase full of five weeks of Enfamil formula.  I had called the formula company and learned that they don't sell it in Turkey and I didn't want to change formulas when Kubi was used to this one.  (Note: the airline sent our stroller to our home address six months later.  Unfortunately we had already bought another stroller once we got home from Turkey.)