and so it begins !

the ladies were off to a bit of a shakey start.  There was a small mix up with Acels visa, although she had her visa right away, they put the start date for Aug 30, and her flight was scedualed to land in Paris at 10:05 pm .  this ment that they would have to take their time, waiting for the plane to come to the gate, be the last off the plane,  and maybe a washroom break on the transit side of the terminal before going through customs so that it would be after midnight . 

This was Ok when they left Bishkek, and were given the bourding pass, but when they went to get on the plane in Istambul for the second flight, they stoped them and would not alow Acel on the plane,  They tried to explain how it would work, and then they got a supervisor.  I was ready to book a new flight for Acel for the next day , it was going to be about $1500 one way from Istambul to Paris , then I would have had to fight to get the original ticket reinstated for the return flight.. if you don't use one part of a continual ticket, they cancle the rest .  The manager with Turkish was very nice, and accomidating , although they would not let her on the flight, they were able to change that portion of the ticket to 7:35 the next morning , so they will meet up back at the airport this morning.  The train to Bayonne leaves from the airport, so they had to return anyways.  

As an added bonus, since Acel was alowed on in Bishkek that makes her their responsibility, and the time to the next flight mad it too long in the airport, so they payed for a hotel for acel for the night as well .. 

The silly thing was that the original flight was 1 hour and 45 minutes late departing, so if they had of left her and she was at the back of the line rather then the front, she would have been fine. as it was , with out hanging back and going slow, Julie did not reach customes until 11:30 .  

We had booked and confirmed a hotal with an airport shuttle , cost a bit more but would have saved taxi fees .. turns out the shuttle would not take her because the flight was delayed. so there was a $25 taxi ride .. there is something for me to do .. go after the booking agent for that .. 

They say that THE WAY is the journey to Santiago, begining when the notionto go first is concieved, So I guess this is all jst part of the journey .. My good friend says " If you will chuckle about it later, you might as well chuckle about it now."   

so this is where Acel is right now, 

and this is where Julie is 

this is a bit of a discouraging start for them, it would be a good time to show suport to incourage them in the travel , Please Donate now to help make adifference . 

Today back in KG we will be heading to the mountains to see the cows and the bees, then after supper we will head over to the farm and pick some pumpkins and squash for the Baby orphanage tomorrow.