What the Hey????

What the hey???Wednesday October 21, 2009 Ok, sometimes I really have to ask myself how long I have been traveling and to how many different countries and how I could make such novice mistakes like I did today. Just a moment lapse in concentration or being tired and suddenly you are prey to touts and doing bonehead things. I am up at 2, off to the airport at 3, on the plane by 5:30 and in the air by 6. We land in Istanbul at 9: a.m. their time which is two hours earlier than Uzbekistan. I already had a visa from my last through trip of Istanbul so got through immigration really quickly and then waited for my luggage which came! Huzzah. Took care of some postage business and then went to look for the hotel shuttle bus. Geez. I was much more tired than I realized because a man comes running out of a rental car place and says "shuttle bus lady?" Normally, as soon as a tout approaches me, I turn and go the other way. They are not good people, they are hustlers and cons and I KNOW THIS. But today I meekly followed him into his office and of course he tells me that the hotel does NOT have a shuttle (it does) and that a taxi will cost me 60 Euros (it won't) and that the hotel is much further away from the airport than it says (it wasn’t) and for some reason, I bought it all! Oh my oh my oh my. The only thing I had going in my favor was my arrival from Uzbekistan so I bargained him down. And then I pulled YET ANOTHER novice, bonehead move. The cost was in Euros, I paid in Euros, I should have asked for my change in Euros but he asked if I would take in it Turkish lire. Oh no, no, no. I know better than to do that. But somehow my lips formed and spoke the word “OK” so I probably lost another $5 on that transaction. But in the end, I did end up at my hotel, and they gave me a room right away, I got some lunch and have been sitting at the computer every since trying to catch up. I love to travel!