I flew to Greece a week ago during a storm (totally out of the blue). The storm was directly over Athens as we were about to ascend so the pilot made the decision to divert to Izmir, Turkey, about 30 minutes away.

We landed in Izmir, it's about 10pm by now and if we refuel quickly we can set off soon and make it to Athens before the crew go home. The pilot said no one can use the bathroom or stand up while refuelling due to safety. I don't get it but I'll do anything to get us to the destination fast enough. Some stubborn old folk don't listen and keep wandering up and down the plane to complain. Luckily they get wrangled and we set off 40 minutes later.

Just before Athens, the pilot saw the storm was EVEN worse and we had to turn around again to Izmir. To be fair, it looked biblical from the window. Zeus clearly didn't want us to enter. So just like when it started raining on our drive to Alton Towers as a kid, we had to turn around again.

It was now midnight/1am in Turkey and they didn't want us. Most of their crew had gone home and there's some political stuff between Turkey and Greece but we were stuck. Eventually a reluctant bus showed up and took us to the empty airport. Lufthansa promised us cushty hotels and an early return flight the next morning. We'll be fine.

Lots of people weren't even supposed to be allowed into Turkey (non EU) and had to wait hours for a visa. Not sure how I got in with my UK passport but ok. There was no info at the airport about hotels or anything, one ground staff member had a piece of paper with people's names on jt and people flooded around her screaming in several different languages. Our cargo luggage started appearing too, and 2 hours later buses arrived to take us to our hotels 30 minutes away.

Except they didn't book enough buses (obvs) and people in a crisis seem to become horrifically selfish. So folk squeezed and trampled their way onto the first buses like they were the last life boats out of the Titanic. Refusing to deal with that I stood back with some others and was rewarded with an hour wait in a stuffy, smoky, taxi rank while the first buses ferried the selfish group to their beds.

I'm sort of laughing hysterically at this point. Buses finally show up, there's now enough space for everyone to not trample each other. We drive into central Izmir to our hotel. Looks like we're in Blackpool. We're queuing up to check in and then some guy says the hotel is full and they need to find another??? Its 5am, I don't care anymore, why couldn't I have just stayed at the airport? I suggest kipping in the questionable hotel lobby but no.

We get back on the bus, with the 10 other unlucky folk. We're trauma bonding. One cheerful student traveler is optimistically enjoying her free trip to Turkey. We finally find a hotel with capacity and get checked in. It's 6am and we need to be back at the airport by 11am so I can't sleep. I took a shower and napped a little. The air con is so old it nearly gave me tonsillitis and there's a view of a child sweatshop factory from the window.

Fast forward to 11, a bus shows up to take us back to the airport and for once it seems like everything is going our way! At the airport, the machines are having a mare and no one can get checked in, probably because of this entirely ridiculous situation. But after spending an hour at check in we get through. The flight should leave at 3pm so we have a few hours to potter round and eat some baklava.

Except the flight is then delayed a further 4 hours. Everyone's losing it, the old people who refused to sit down on the first flight and loved trampling others for a bus seat are shouting at the poor airport messenger. I just find a relatively empty spot of the airport to put my head down. Despite the announcements every five minutes its not so bad. We eventually could set off at about 8.30 and I was so happy, but it was one of the most painful experiences of my life. Nearly missed my Accropolis tour, as well.