Flying halfway​ around the world to Cape Town

The morning has finally come after months of planning and it was an eventful first day.

Typically, we couldn’t have picked a worse day to travel halfway around the world, as Storm Ciara ripped its way through the country. However, both of our flights to Istanbul and Cape Town were scheduled with no delays.

The past few days had been tough for everyone as the reality crept in of what we were taking on.

Mum dropped me off at Emily’s parents, who were taking us to the airport, for 12:00 AM and inevitably, not for the first time, the tears started to flow.

However, by 14:00 PM we were in the departure lounge of Manchester Airport. As a pre-holiday treat, I decided to buy a new Hugo Boss Wallet & Card Holder.

Surprisingly, our first flight to Istanbul, which lasted just over three hours was relatively smooth, albeit with the few occasional moments of turbulence.

I decided not to sleep (which would end up backfiring) and instead opted to watch one of my childhood favourite films, Johnny English on the TV screen in front of me.

We arrived at Istanbul’s International Airport at 23:05 and I was desperate for the toilet.

I was going about my business like anyone would, but all of a sudden a man barged into my cubicle, knocking the hinges off the door in the process.

This left me in a sticky situation – should I scamper to the next cubicle, or wedge my day-sack in the door? I decided to do the latter. This proved to be a bad move, as three more people preceded to try & enter! I could only apologise … I don’t think they understood what had happened.

After that ordeal and Emily wondering why I took so long, we decided to walk around the airport.

It’s hard to describe how big Istanbul’s Airport is. The airport was extremely modern and was decorated with Chinese Laterns to mark The Chinese New Year. After walking past what must have been at least 5 duty frees, my Apple Watch clocked that we had walked just short of 2 miles.

I was apprehensive before boarding the next flight, as it was an 11-hour flight – the longest flight I’d ever been on.

I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t the smoothest of flights. For almost the entirety of the flight, the seatbelt sign was illuminated. I also found it difficult to sleep, as we were sat two rows behind a newborn baby, who cried almost the whole way there!

In the end Emily and I managed to get a few hours sleep each before we eventually landed in Cape Town at 12:15 PM.

We then preceded to go with the first Taxi company that approached us… and this was one of the more memorable taxi rides…

Our driver demonstrated South Africa’s finest music, as well as his finest dance moves, as he drove us to our AirBnb, 30 minutes away from the airport.

By the time we arrived, we had an hour to spare until we could check-in. So, what better way of wasting an hour than to sit in McDonald’s.

Emily and I have eaten a McDonald’s in every country we’ve been too & we intend on keeping up that impressive record!

After we’d checked in, we scoured the streets for a few hours. But, by 18:00 PM we were back in our apartment, munching on a pizza from Pizza Hut and guiltily watching Love Island!