Flying Turkish.
We have arrived in Brussels, after what seemed like a very long 8 hour trip via Istanbul early this morning with Turkish Airways.
The fares were very well priced at 2340AED per person, including all taxes and a stopover in Istanbul on our way home. This being our very first flight with Turkish Airways, we did not fail to notice that the clientele is very different from Emirates', the check-in queues were crowded and a little unruly and due to inefficient staffing and management wait times were out of control! Similarly, the flight was delayed by approximately 20 minutes and the boarding process was also ineffectively managed.
I have to say there is considerably more leg room in Economy class compared to Emirates, however you do have to contend with not only uncomfortable but garish turquoise-coloured vinyl seats! Also, the service and delivery process of meals onboard had to be the slowest and most inefficient I've ever encountered!
Having said all this, I found the Turkish people [just from my limited experience from onboard and at Ataturk airport] warm and friendly. The language is what puzzled me the most as I have to admit I haven't really heard much Turkish being spoken before today. I am not sure why, but I expected it to sound a bit more like Arabic, and to me it sounds more like an Eastern European language such as Hungarian or Cesky?! I'm not an expert, but this has spurred me on to find out more when I get home about this sing-song language and its roots and influences. Yep, being the language geek that I am.
6 comments:
Hi there.
Turkish is related only marginally with hungarian and finnish, and unrelated with arabic, germanic or slavic languages like czech, kroatian etc. We do have many loanwords from arabic and french etc.
Azerbaidjan, Kazachstan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, eastern siberia,the tartars living in Russia and the uygur living in western china all speak similar languages to turkish.
I am Turkish, and can only understand people from azerbaidjan, the others sound familiar to me but I can only sometimes guess what they are saying.
Languages like hungarian and finnish are totally unfamiliar and unintelligible.
Welcome to Europe again hehe :)
Wow you sure are a dedicated blogger posting your first day there... I wish I was that good.
Imagining those garish seats make me laugh... I could just imagine snoop dog shaking his head in dis-respect...
Anyways, have a great time and stuff yourself full of chocolate and don't pass up the opportunity to get 'groot frites mit fritesaus' it may just be chips with mayo but they really really are better than you might expect.
Ciao ciao!
Hello Matty! Thanks for the welcome. Hee hee... Yeah I was posting last night because Greg had gone to dinner with the conference guys and I decided to order take aways after discovering it was raining a little outside! I have to admit I was also pooped from the day, and I couldn't resist the laptop just sitting there and the hotel having wifi too!! Geek.
Yep, I can laugh now but wasn't laughing yesterday at 3am under bright white lights on uncomfortable turquoise seats. Ugh.
Under your orders I'll have to go now and stuff myself full of yummy Belgian Choccies! A bientot!
Hi Riza! Thanks for stopping by my blog and for your really informative comment.
I am enlightened! It's funny, because I was just thinking if I'd overheard Turkish being spoken before - which probably happens quite often in Dubai - I would have just thought it was Russian being spoken...
Thanks for taking the time to post this comment! I'm looking forward to spending more time in your beautiful country tomorrow :-)
Hi
Glad you arrived safe and sound! Sound like you have had an adventure already!
Enjoy the rest of the trip and I will see you next week.
Bonjour Joy!
Yes, adventures aplenty for moi! Having fun, and just stopped back at the hotel now waiting to meet Gypsy Boy for lunch. A bientot!
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