Mum googled and found out about the bombing at Ataturk airport last night. I messaged some people, so did Mum but when Mum went to message others we realised all social media had been blocked.
The Turkish government said they blocked it because there was some video footage of the suicide bombers crazily shooting random passengers in the departure hall and the arrivals hall. They said they didn't want the suspects to read any comments people might make about the bombing, but Mum also heard that the government didn't want any criticism about themselves.
No one at the hotel spoke English, so we couldn't find out anything more and today was the big day - seeing the battlefields and learning as much as I could so we quickly packed and left for the car ferry.
Cannakale and the town on the other side of the Dardanelles looked so beautiful, it was hard to think that such cruelty and horror had happened just 3 hours away.
The title of this post is the bombing so I'll write about this, and will write different posts about the day.
The driver was very subdued when we asked him about the bombing. He shook his head and said "very sad." We didn't find anyone else who spoke English all morning and because we didn't have SIM cards we couldn't find out anything.
Luckily in the van Mum got wifi and she was able to email people. She also rang Susie and Prue posted on Mum's FB timeline to let people know we weren't at the airport - we will be tomorrow - if it's open.
On the way back to Istanbul Mum googled to get Royal Jordanian Airlines and rang them to ask about our flight to Amman. She was told "yes, everything's normal"!! It was later we found out that the government decided to clear the damage as much as they could (the departure and arrival halls and outside were blown to bits), to send a message to ISIS (who they believed organised the bombing) that Turkey will stand up to them and nothing will stop them.
Ataturk airport is the 3rd busiest airport in Europe.
Before we left Sydney Mum had emailed the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs about our itinerary. There's a place on smart traveller for Australians to do this. Mum said she'd never done this for any of our trips before but how fortunate it was she did this time because she received an email from the Australian Embassy in Turkey explaining the situation. They said to stay away from main tourist areas, to be very cautious, to do what the Turkish authorities say and to ring the airline.
By the time we got back to the Albinas hotel Mum had decided that we will fly to Amman tomorrow. I didn't know this morning that she was thinking that maybe we wouldn't and maybe find another way, like by boat to Greece and then a plane to Jordan.
We already felt at home in Istanbul and knew the back streets so we went to the same restaurant as our first night. The owner remembered our names and gave Mum a free glass of wine, he said he wanted tourists to know Turkey's a good place.
I wrote more about the bombing on the Istanbul to Amman post.
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