Blues After Vacation

May I add several suggestions to the well-thought-out article by Peggy Van Hulsteyn, “Beating the Blues. . . .” (Nov. 8). Try not to be upset when the computers go down in your far from home airport when you are trying to confirm your flight home. Don’t panic when you are informed 30 hours before departure that “due to the situation in Tehran” your flight from Istanbul has been canceled. Lufthansa will reroute you via Munich and Frankfurt. You’ll only have to change planes twice. You’ll have a full 20 minutes between each flight to make connections, God willing.

Have faith in your hotel clerk. Surely he will remember to awaken you at 3 a.m. So don’t be a fool--don’t check the time on your little travel clock every half-hour from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Don’t fret about trying to find a taxi on the streets of Istanbul at 4 a.m.

Stand your ground! Don’t get riled at 5 a.m. at the Istanbul airport when the sleepy young woman at the ticket counter tells you your ticket in its present form is “unacceptable.” Once safely aboard your plane, don’t allow your blood pressure to rise when you find a Turk sitting directly across the aisle from you, spewing great clouds of Turkish cigarette smoke, when you specifically asked to be seated in the nonsmoking section because you are terribly allergic to smoke. Just think of all the hardships poor Louis VII had to go through in 1148, on his disastrous overland Crusade, when he traversed much of the same ground you have just covered.

BECKY LEE LUKEI

Carlsbad