Anyhow...
I'm now in Istanbul airport, Ataturk. Love the name. So...exotic. I will be here for a total of 3.5-ish hours before the last leg of my journey to see one of my long time besties.
The flight left on-time from VA. I sat next to a man who was a perpetual leg shaker. At one point I wanted to stab him with my cutlery just to make him stop although I didn't think that would actually help me. And as I always say: Orange is not the new black no matter what Hollywood tells us. He also mumbled. That drove me nuts.
The only real "drama" that happened was as we were pulling out of the gate, an announcement came onto the speaker asking that if there were any doctors on-board, they should identify themselves. Um...say what? And there was no follow-up. That's just not cool. Inquiring and nosy minds want to know. But curiosity in this case was not appeased. *sad face*
I decided to ignore this simply hoping that whoever needed help would get it and that I wouldn't miss my connecting flight. Yea, even I have my more selfish moments. I am very human.
I also remembered why I hated planes. Not because of the typical phobia associated but rather how damn constricting. In particular my knees!! Good lord they hurt sitting in that darn cramped space and no matter what I tried, sleep was a hard fought experience. No position I tried derived the comfort I was hoping for even though my body was mad as hell that I wasn't giving it the rest it deserved. I do not blame it. And how did it get revenge? My bumping up the aches and pains throughout the rest of my bod. And that's probably why I'm slugging around this airport totally foggy. They don't call overnight flights "red eyes" for nothing.
I guess there were a few plus points to the plane ride: the food was surprisingly good (you didn't read that wrong, it was excellent and a woman who I could only call a "chef" because she was wore a chef's hat, strutted her stuff up and down the aisles), I watched Transformer 4 and Anchorman 2.
Landing in Turkey was surreal and welcome simply so I could stretch my tortured legs and after scoping out the lay of the land I realized, much to my sorrow, that big American chains have infiltrated all factions of the world. Yuck. Seeing Burger King and Popeyes desperately disappointed me. Why this should be, particularly at an airport, I'm not sure but it did and I headed for anything that I didn't recognize. Admittedly I wasted a lot of money on a lamb sandwich that was far too gamey. I'm trying not to complain about this but may I point out that they should be able to do lamb well? Or am I wrong in this assumption?
Anyhow I have a few hours to kill before I board the next flight so I plan to take some time to observe and write about humanity in general. This should be fun.
So ok, any red blooded woman would notice right off the bat that there are a lot of good looking men wandering around here. I am no exception. They are everywhere and it's a bit intimidating. I'm not one who likes to be around so much perfection hence it makes me uncomfy. I've avoided eye contact, not made a fool of myself and that's good enough for me.
What's super cool? The diverse languages. They all meld together in this beautiful symphony that makes me want to go home and buy a few Rosetta Stone's and have at it. I won't, but this is what's happening in my head. I will take the time to stop and talk with those willing to converse with me because I think that's half the fun in traveling to far off lands, right? That won't happen during this layover, not enough time but definitely Germany! I really wish that I could recall some of the German I learned in high school. What a waste of 4 years.
My gate has finally been identified. Phew. 303. I made my way down here ignoring all the glorious duty free stores since I'll be back on my way home and no point in wasting money or space at this moment. On my way to the gate, I stopped to take pictures where I could receiving a lot of odd looks. Not sure why. Isn't this the age of Instagram and facebook? It wasn't like I was taking selfies (which I did but was super DL about it).
And as I rode down the escalator to the gate, It was as if I was suddenly in India.
o.O
OMG, the brown!! So much everywhere. I understand that this is after all Turkey hence brown would be in abundance but this shade I'm talking about is the dot sporting, over-the-top spangly salwar-kameez wearing type. My peeps basically. Well sorta. I mean my real peeps would be wearing over-the-top sparkly sari's I suppose.
As I got to my gate though the brown cleared out leaving me to spy a larger amount of Europeans, think German.
Btw, what's up with the masks? They are everywhere. What plague is infesting the world and I don't know about it? I had a moment to wonder if I too shouldn't be sporting one and then thought better of it. I'll risk it. I fact there's a dude in front of me right now wearing it. He seems normal enough. I'm tempted to ask why but I'm afraid he'll go screaming off into the horizon never to be seen again just because he's scared of whatever I could give him just by speaking to him? After all, he IS wearing a mask.
Never mind, I'll ask S when I get to her.
But this is fun. Sitting and watching. Observing humanity in its most glorious form. I think the airport brings out the best and worst of people. There is such ultimate happiness and heart breaking sorrows housed in airports. The goodbyes and hellos, the tears of separation as well as joy. If one should really think about it, it's pretty deep stuff.
But now being somewhere I've never been to before is even more interesting. For instance, as I was wandering around I suddenly spotted signs for prayer rooms, the word "mosque" with arrows. How cool? Living in the land where the predominant religion is Christianity hence of course churches are everywhere, seeing mosques so prominently displayed is indeed a novelty.
Moving along...
The bathrooms? Total mess. I traipsed from one part of the airport to another looking for one clean toilet. Lemme tell you, this was a hard fought battle akin to going on the quest for the holy grail. You know it's out there, but where?!
And when I found one, the flush didn't work. -_- A worker came in right after me and I told her the toilet didn't flush. She looked at me stone faced, not even the slightest smile, walked into the stall, pressed the button and voila, the damn thing flushed. I stood there gawking. I tried to explain that it hadn't worked for me but she totally ignored me probably thinking, "idiot" and went about her business. Sigh. Total fail.
Ok; clearly I'm at the right gate because there are far more "gora's" here than I've seen since leaving the States. Lol. And lots of hijabi's (head scarfed women) although I don't think they're necessarily going my way.
This one woman (not a hijabi) is pacing in front of me, back and forth, back and forth. I wish she would stop. She's making me nervous and I'm just not the nervous type hence its annoying me. I want to tell her not to wear the carpet down and place her butt on something that wasn't right in front of me. That could potentially be super rude. I don't wanna misrep Americans anymore than they have in the past so I passed :)
Did I mention that the queue to board the flight is about a mile long? I'm eyeing it and internally sighing. Not sure why they've lined up already like this since there hasn't been an announcement to call for boarding but maybe again I'm missing something. Possibly there's some signal that people who are far better travelled than me just know instinctively? Maybe some exclusive club of knowledge? I feel left out.
Alright. Now I am on the plane and we've taken off. Another observation as we flew above Turkey: It looks, from the height, just like NoVa (that's Northern Virginia for those who aren't "with it" enough. But really it does. Funny, right? The red of the taillights, the white of the headlights...the paved roads, the flow of street lights...same.
We are far more similar than we are different, aren't we? It's just about proximity.
Once again, the food is excellent. I can't complain but long ago I learned that the best seat in an airplane is an aisle. Easy access to the bathroom, you see. Maybe I bumped my head when I decided for this last 3 hour leg i would take a window. And now what happens? Full flight and full bladder and two dudes sitting next to me who don't look like they want to move. What the hell...and of course dinner service goes on for freakin' ever which means I have to hold it till God knows when. This airstewardess is very pretty and incredibly chatty. The guys behind me are flirting with her and she's indulging. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't be bitter if I didn't have to go quite this badly. At this point I'm blabbering trying hard to distract myself. Oh wow this is horrible. FML
Made it to the bathroom!!! Woo! And oh, the guy at the end of the aisle? What an ass. He literally rolled his eyes at me when I indicated that I had to get out. Seriously it took me all sense of self control not to say "f-u". Once again, no need to be like that. But maybe I'll kick him by accident at one point? I'm just saying karma and all...
I hate this guy.
Sleepy time.
Have a Good time ., Mrs.Uzzaman !!
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