Day 29 - One night in Istanbul

Alright, the journey home begins today.

That journey is actually going to take us three days as we first fly into Istanbul today, into Paris tomorrow, and then to Vancouver the following day.

I figured it was better (and cheaper) than booking some God awful 20+ hour flight with multiple layovers.

It also gives us a chance to revisit both Istanbul and Paris for a bit which is a nice treat after traveling through Central Asia this past month.

So, having said all that, we had a flight to Istanbul to catch this morning.

A restless sleep

Our flight was at 7:40 this morning which had me setting my alarm for 4:30am.

That horrible time to wake up was exasperated by the fact that the loudest snorer in the world was in our dorm room last night.

Seriously, even with my heavy duty earplugs I could hear him loud and clear.

I mean I understand that sharing a room with snorers comes with the territory when you’re staying in hostels but I also believe that if you are a “off the charts” snorer that common courtesy and etiquette says you should either figure out a way to alleviate the snoring or just not stay in dorm rooms.

Which is all to say that I got at maximum 2 hours sleep last night when I desperately needed to get as much as I could.

Anyway, at 5:30 we loaded up into a Yandex (their version of Uber) for the final time this trip.

No more Yandex. In fact, no more taxis at all.

A short 15 minutes later we had arrived at Tashkent International Airport.

Two hours til our flight leaves.

Or so we thought…

Delayed!

We perused the big departure board as we entered the airport to see a big red message next to our flight.

Delayed till 10:20.

Nooooooooo!

An almost 3 hour delay!

Well, that sucks.

I guess it could be worse as we don’t have a connecting flight today.

It just means we’ll arrive in Istanbul 3 hours later and shorten our time there.

Not the end of the world – just a nuisance more than anything.

There was a severe lack of seating around the checkin counters but, as we had resigned to sitting on the floor, I spied an outdoor lounge area with a few cafes and ample seating.

Things were looking up.

And then I spotted a couple of airport cats.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – cats make everything all right.

Hotdogs for breakfast

Now, I’ve kind of made fun of constantly getting hotdogs as the meat option with my breakfasts during this trip.

However, today I was ecstatic to see that one of the cafes lining the lounge area was selling hotdogs.

Sure I got a strange look on the guy’s face when I asked him to just pour some ketchup and mayo into the bottom of a paper cup and then plunk two hotdogs inside it but I didn’t care.

I was having hotdogs for breakfast dammit!

More Delays

Finally at 9:00 we went through security which, despite having to take off my shoes and wear little plastic booties, we were through in both that and passport control in a mere 15 minutes.

The departure board not showed that we’d be boarding at 9:30 which was only 15 minutes away.

Yay! Finally we’d be boarding this damn flight and get on our way…

Ah, yeah… about that…

We walked up to gate B5 and found the door closed and locked.

Hmmm, I don’t think we’re boarding at 9:30…

And, of course, 9:30 came and went and then 10:00 and, okay, we’re definitely not leaving at our new departure time of 10:20.

Finally at 10:15 the door opened and, in true Uzbek style, four lines formed on either side of it to squeeze through that tiny entrance way.

On the other side of the door was a guy checking our boarding passes and letting us through to the jetway to board the plane.

I’m always nervous at this point simply because I know my backpack doesn’t really conform to the airlines guidelines for carryon bags.

My bag is slightly bulkier than that little metal cage they make you test it in and it definitely weighs more than the 8kg allotment they give you.

So, as I entered the door and saw a gate agent berating two girls who were obviously trying to bring in way too many things as their carryon, my nerves shot up a wee bit more.

I actually just turned a bit so I was facing him directly and he couldn’t get a good look at that hefty thing on my back.

And, phew, it worked.

I’ve never been so happy to have my boarding pass ripped and being told to go towards the plane.

Finally, after another 40 minute delay, we were taxiing onto the runway at 11am.

Our flight was now delayed almost three and a half hours but we were finally on our way…

An iconic airplane meal

Soon after we took off the flight attendants came by with the usual offering of headphones and pillows.

Now the headphones were the typical cheap wired pluggy things but, man, the little pillow they gave out was amazing.

Usually the pillow case on those are like a rough linen and it feels horrible rubbing against your face.

This one though was a soft cotton case and, yeah, I’m definitely snagging that and shoving it into my backpack.

A little while later meal service began.

Again, as a celiac, I had preordered a special gluten free meal and as usual my meal was one of the first to be delivered.

It was quite possibly the best meal I’ve ever had on an airplane and that’s saying alot.

It was literally two meals in one.

A dish of plov which is basically a rice pilaf with beef and an Turkish meal set.

The meal set had a 4 different plastic inserts on it.

One was a little salad, another one was dates and apricots, the third was an orange and apple slice, and the last one was a couple of different sausage slices and a slice of cheese.

Oh, and a pack of peanuts to round it all out.

Either meal would have been levels above what I’m used to when I’m flying so I have to give credit where credit is due.

Uzbekistan Airways you made up for that delay ten-fold.

Are you listening Air Canada? That’s how you do it! Step up your game!!!

Metro into the city

With a two hour time zone change we arrived in Istanbul just after 2:30 in the afternoon.

But if you know anything about the airports in Istanbul, then you know that they are a good hour to an hour and a half out of the city.

Yeah, we weren’t quite in Istanbul yet.

As we walked towards the metro station in the airport I was getting alot of flashbacks to the time we were here 3 years ago.

For instance as we walking to the metro station I immediately recounted the long walk under a passageway outdoors to get to it.

And the stupid ticket machines which we couldn’t get to work.

Oh, by the way, I haven’t learned anything about the tickets since.

I bought a card from a blue machine while Nathan bought a card from a yellow machine that we both topped off for hopefully enough transit trips tonight and tomorrow morning.

Note to everybody – don’t buy from the blue machine.

It’s more of national transit card but only works on a few transit lines in Istanbul including the first line M11 out of the airport.

The card from the yellow machine is the card for Istanbul and it works at all the metros.

I found out the hard way as we had to start double tapping Nathan’s card to get me into the metro stations.

Despite it being overcast and only 19c out, the metro stations and the rides themselves were very muggy and I instantly regretted changing into pants earlier.

We were now reaching 12 hours since we had left our hostel in Tashkent this morning and the cracks were starting to show.

Tired, sweaty, and just wanting to get to our damn hotel.

And then the subway went above ground for one station and I got a glimpse of the bustling city and, man, that’s all it took to break my mood.

A smile instantly came across my face as, yes, we were here in Istanbul again albeit just for one night.

And to add to my joy, as we were transferring through one of stations you’d wouldn’t believe it…

A cat!

Just wandering around in the hallways of the metro station.

Cats always make everything better!

Kumpir!!!

If you don’t know what Kumpir is, well, you’re missing out.

It’s a baked potato stuffed with the insides of another baked potato with cheese and butter whipped into it.

Then you can choose toppings like salads, sausage, corn, cabbage, and other things to put on top of it.

It is a monstrosity of a meal and evokes smiles and positive memories for me.

I’ve had fond memories of the one I had here back in 2023 and I’ve been looking forward to having another one ever since I knew we were coming home via Istanbul.

In fact, truth be told, I selected the hotel we’re staying at because it’s in close proximity to a kumpir stand and a restaurant we’d be revisiting later in the night.

So, even though we were now over thirteen hours into our travel day I v-lined straight for a kumpir before we even checked into our hotel.

The lady behind the counter allowed me back there with her to video her making this delicious masterpiece and I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.

You can see the video in the photo gallery at the end of this blog.

Seriously, this may have been the happiest I’ve been this trip and it was all over a potato.

I chose 5 toppings for a price of 500 Turkish lira ($15) and with potato in hand we crossed the street and checked into our hotel for the night.

A room to ourselves.

No roommates. No snorers. Just us.

And, oh man, the comfiest beds we’ve seen for awhile.

As I ate my kumpir at the little desk in the corner of the room, Nathan passed out on the bed.

I couldn’t even get through half of the potato before I was stuffed.

Besides, I still had a dinner to eat…