After a lovely 2 weeks with my hubby, Hasan, in Turkey I had a nightmare time at Bodrum Airport while checking in for my flight home. On the journey there Hasan and I were wondering if anything had changed at Bodrum airport as I hadn’t flown from there in a while and it wasn’t the prettiest place in the world the last time I was there.
So imagine our surprise when we got there and discovered the new international terminal, it was a vision of contempory design, gleaming and shining like a new penny. There were lots of airport staff milling around in smart new uniforms and all seemed well.
Or so I thought…….unfortunately a new terminal equalled new systems which didn’t seem to cope with large numbers of passengers. I arrived 10 minutes after the check in desk opened and there were 2 desks opened, there were about 30 other passengers left in the queues waiting to be checked in and there we stood for 1 and a half hours. While we stood going nowhere the gate opened and the plane began to board. One by one the desks were shutting down due to the systems giving up under the pressure and the staff flapped around worryingly.
Being Brits we remained patient for quite a while but as the time for take off was fast approaching tempers were starting to fray and it started to resemble a scene from ‘Airline’. Eventually with minutes to spare I was checked in and Hasan was ready to punch someone! I was angry because it was a stressful end to a wonderful time with Hasan. We couldn’t say goodbye properly because I had to do an olympic sprint through passport control and security. We not going to be together for 5 or 6 months and it would have been nice to have a better end to my visit.
Carole Gardiner
back to life 