Being hungover was the start of multiple dumb mistakes for me. I was in the middle of a 2 month round -the- world trip alone and had a BKK - Istanbul flight. The night before I went out with friends on Phuket. The next day I flew back to Bangkok, very hungover, and then got on my 9 hour flight to Istanbul. I fell asleep before the doors closed and woke up just before we landed! It was about 3am, I was completely groggy and alone in Turkey for the first time. I got a few hundred dollars out of the ATM and I as I was walking away heard a beeping sound and watched in horror as my card was sucked back into the ATM. Worse, due to an earlier problem with my other card and fraud, this was all I had.
Luckily I had left my mother access to my accounts and skyped with her to wire enough money for a month. No problem. I went to the Turkish bank the next day and filled out the forms and they checked my passport. They kept insisting it didn't match. I looked at the form and had filled out " mother's maiden name," which if course does not appear on American passports. They told me to come back the next day and deal with a more senior bank official. The next day when I returned I tried to explain the situation. He insisted on actually calling my mother. Poor thing- it was the middle of the night in the US and my parents receive a call from a Turkish " official" asking if they know someone with my name.
At this point it all worked out but I do think it gave her a few gray hairs!
Last edited by cakegirl; Jul 21, 2014 at 7:56 pm