On Wednesday I bid farewell to Turkey and my new friends and family there. I think I will be returning soon, although it is tiring for me to be there on some level. While the people I have met are all so welcoming and understanding, there are still some significant cultural differences and I think it is tiring for me to be aware and careful on a level I’m not used to. I feel that this time was easier than the last, however, and now that I have family there I suspect I will get more and more comfortable!

I had a smooth flight from Istanbul straight to London with plans to meet my cousin Ellen (who left Turkey on Monday to spend a couple days with friends also in London) and at least one of my British friends from the Camino. But the evening turned out to be even more exciting than that!

When I got to the immigration guy he asked me the basic questions, including what I would be doing in the UK. And I, instead of just saying “sightseeing,” like usual, said something like “…visiting friends, and maybe volunteering on a farm.” And as soon as I said the word ‘volunteer’ I was red-flagged for intending to work without having a Work Visa. The guy got really serious and started asking me a ton of not-normal questions like how much money I was carrying on me, why I had left my job, and all kinds of details about the farm I was considering volunteering at. Then he handed me a paper, explaining that I was being detained until a Senior official could interview me. The guy seemed almost apologetic once they moved me out of the line, explaining why he had to detain me, and getting me a sandwich and glass of water.

Then I was thoroughly fingerprinted and photographed, and had to collect my bag and have it very thoroughly searched by two other Guards. They pulled out everything and even read every piece of paper, my journal, receipts I had, flipped through the pages of a small New Testament I’ve been carrying with me. One of them took special interest in my Pilgrim’s Passport from the Camino, and asked “They call it ‘The Way,’ right?” which felt so friendly and normal and for which I was grateful. They took a few papers and my pocketknife and had me pack everything back up, then they tagged my pack and my purse, took them, patted me down, made me take off my shoes, and then put me in a holding room with two other men for 2 hours. They were nice as they could be about it, offering me another sandwich, and a pillow, but protocol is protocol.

Up until this point I was perfectly calm. It actually felt rather like a fun adventure to me; how would THIS turn out? Because really it didn’t much matter to me! I had nowhere to be! Send me back to Turkey! Or I’ll promise to go to Ireland tomorrow! If they did send me back to the US I figured it would be to help my family when Grandad goes in for heart surgery next week. All of the possible outcomes I could think of would be fine. I was channeling Ellen, who loves to tell me that everything happens for a reason! But to have everything take away from me and be patted down and put in a room with closed circuit cameras and locks on all doors was a bit much and I started crying. Not sobbing crying, I just let my eyes run. The security guard saw and brought me a pile of tissues and asked if I wanted a coffee, sweet guy.

It turned out the guard who asked about my Camino passport in my stuff turned out to be the person who interviewed me. She started the interview by saying “First of all I think you doing the Camino is amazing.” And that helped calm me down! Apparently someone thought I was coming from Turkey to meet some Turks somewhere in the UK to work but I didn’t know anything about them. Um… nope. I was able to explain to her that my main reason for coming was to waste time until I could go back to Europe, and to visit people I had met on the Camino. They had found a piece of paper that I had written a rough budget on which included “Flight to Italy” in September which supported that. I showed them my bank accounts, that I had enough money to support myself. She said she would go talk to her senior who had to make the final decision, but she couldn’t promise anything.

And then after sitting for awhile more in the holding room they just opened the door and sent me on my way. I have no idea what happened, why the decision was made to release me instead of deport mr, and it felt weird to walk out, almost like I had lied and was sneaking, which of course I wasn’t. I wanted to hug the girl who I felt had gotten me out on account of the Camino connection. Her only words to me were “You’re welcome,” and “Just don’t do this volunteering thing!!”

After missing a few turns in the airport, I found Ellen was amazingly still waiting for me at our designated spot at the train station, and we somehow got back to her friend’s apartment, both of us exhausted. She had to leave in the morning to fly back to the US and I’m sad we didn’t have the previous evening to decompress together. We’ve done a lot in the last month! But she is happy back in CA and plans to come back to Turkey again soon.

I spent the rest of the day hiding out in the apartment and catching up on sleep. I was in London and didn’t see a darn thing except half of the block and the grocery store! I scrapped the idea of volunteering, although my head knows that now I’m in no one will check on me. But I still feel guilty, like I somehow cheated and shouldn’t be here. I knew I had to get away from that feeling and away from the city so I sent inquiries to a bunch of BnBs in Wales, the Cotswolds, and Cornwall, all of which are known for having awesome walking paths. And somehow here I am tonight in West Wales, in one of two spare rooms in a beautiful old stone farmhouse with a lovely welcoming family.

I plan on doing a lot of quiet walking in the next few days, channeling the Camino which seemingly provided for me once again. That was a common saying over there; “The Camino provides.” I almost sent all of the paraphernalia back home but now I think I kept it just for that Border Guard to see. Who knows, maybe it will inspire her to go and do it for herself. Everything happens for a reason!!

These are the only decent photos I took today: (I promise my next post will have more photos! I thought about taking some in the fingerprinting room before they took my bags away but decided it probably wouldn’t help my case!)