Gather round children and I will tell
About a camera that made a living hell
For Yekta and Kristina, two lovely lasses
That went to Turkish customs to kick their asses.
About a camera that made a living hell
For Yekta and Kristina, two lovely lasses
That went to Turkish customs to kick their asses.
Sorry for the vulgarity, but that is the best introduction for the Tale of the Camera. For you avid readers who have been following along with my blog, you will 1) have noticed its barrenness and 2) have been hearing about my situation with cameras. For those not-quite-so-avid readers, my camera broke last Monday (the day of walking the walls) and I have been unable to get it fixed. I relayed my plight to Thomas, who agreed to send me his (very nice) camera - what a wonderful boyfriend! Long story short, FedEx wanted $1500 to get the camera, and I wasn't even sure if I would be able to send it back to the US for any cheaper. So today I took Yekta with me to get to the bottom of this very un-fun Turkish mystery.
We headed to Ataturk Airport to get to the FedEx warehouse. Let me tell you, it is quite a journey using public transportation. First, we rode the tramline all the way to the end, then transferred to the metro and rode it to the end of the line, which was the bottom of the airport. From there, we had to take a taxi to the FedEx warehouse. We found an official-looking guy and asked him about our issue - and by "we" asked him, I mean Yekta did in Turkish. He told us that the 1500 lira was the fee for using a broker to get through customs, but since we were here, we could do it for 350 lira. I told him I couldn't pay that much, and then he said that I could send it back to the US for $875. I, getting a tad bit frustrated, said to him, "No, I am NOT paying almost $900 to NOT get my camera."
Then he went to his supervisor and came back, telling us that FedEx would drop their $250 fee for the necessary paperwork but I would probably still have to pay the $100 to customs. I said that was fine, so we headed back towards Ataturk Airport to customs. What a scary building that is - after about an hour of copying my passport like 5 times, getting about 10 pages of paperwork, and paying only 30 lira (YES!) we headed back to the FedEx warehouse to give them the customs paperwork and get Thomas's camera via a private (which translates as illegal, or pirate) taxi. After checking through my package and Yekta telling one of the cashiers that her supervisor had said we didn't need to pay (haha) we made it back into our pirate taxi to go back to Ataturk Airport to go back home! Yay!!!!!
When we got back to the flat, it was time for our party on the terrace with Robin (our landlady), Hande (our Turkish teacher) + her flatmate, Prof. Shields + William, Katie (Prof.'s daughter) + one of her friends, and a lot of Robin's friends. We had quite a spread of fruit, nuts, and other appetizers, and an even bigger spread of drinks. It was a great time, and after they all left, we had a private DARTY with just us on the terrace. Note: DARTY is a store on Istiklal, but we use it to mean party.
We headed to Ataturk Airport to get to the FedEx warehouse. Let me tell you, it is quite a journey using public transportation. First, we rode the tramline all the way to the end, then transferred to the metro and rode it to the end of the line, which was the bottom of the airport. From there, we had to take a taxi to the FedEx warehouse. We found an official-looking guy and asked him about our issue - and by "we" asked him, I mean Yekta did in Turkish. He told us that the 1500 lira was the fee for using a broker to get through customs, but since we were here, we could do it for 350 lira. I told him I couldn't pay that much, and then he said that I could send it back to the US for $875. I, getting a tad bit frustrated, said to him, "No, I am NOT paying almost $900 to NOT get my camera."
Then he went to his supervisor and came back, telling us that FedEx would drop their $250 fee for the necessary paperwork but I would probably still have to pay the $100 to customs. I said that was fine, so we headed back towards Ataturk Airport to customs. What a scary building that is - after about an hour of copying my passport like 5 times, getting about 10 pages of paperwork, and paying only 30 lira (YES!) we headed back to the FedEx warehouse to give them the customs paperwork and get Thomas's camera via a private (which translates as illegal, or pirate) taxi. After checking through my package and Yekta telling one of the cashiers that her supervisor had said we didn't need to pay (haha) we made it back into our pirate taxi to go back to Ataturk Airport to go back home! Yay!!!!!
When we got back to the flat, it was time for our party on the terrace with Robin (our landlady), Hande (our Turkish teacher) + her flatmate, Prof. Shields + William, Katie (Prof.'s daughter) + one of her friends, and a lot of Robin's friends. We had quite a spread of fruit, nuts, and other appetizers, and an even bigger spread of drinks. It was a great time, and after they all left, we had a private DARTY with just us on the terrace. Note: DARTY is a store on Istiklal, but we use it to mean party.
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