Which started yesterday upon landing in Istanbul (the 26th) and just slid into today which is now the 27th on this side of the world, Eleven hours time ahead of California for anyone who cares,
After hanging out in Terminal F for the longest time I decided to take a chance on my new gate more likely than not being at the other end of the airport. Initially, looking at the board, it seemed like the Middle East flights were leaving out of F while the European bound ones were more likely to be A, B, or C, This is not a small airport While scrolling around F it seemed to be mostly coffee shops, eateries and the like Not so the main area of A -> D Front and center are all the designer shops featuring everything from clothing & shoes thru jewelry , watches, electronics & luggage Plus duty free shops. One can never avoid the duty free. In this area, the eateries are all on the upper deck & everything is open 24 hours I am typing this around 0445 in the morning.
According to the board – my flight would board at 08xx and the gate would be listed at 0725. Well, guess what? The gate pops up on the list right at the allotted time. Gate? F8B.. So I head back down the shopping mall, take the escalator back down to Terminals E & F and once more (no clue now how many times I have made this trek) head down to the left and find Gate F8B a bit more than ½ way down that very long walk on the left.
We board on time, the flight is about 4 hours and amazingly it is not completely packed nor do they run out of overhead bin space. Even better, the middle seat in my row is empty so that the nice woman in the window seat and I actually have some space. The flight is a bit over four hours. The biggest challenge actually turned out to be getting through passport control. All these fancy nice scanners that I am used to from trips through Schipol. Only they are turned off except on the EU side. My suitcase was waiting by the time I made it through the long lines. Custom clearance involved getting my suitcase xrayed. I never did find the currency exchange, but since the cab was more than pleased to take electronic payment, it just wasn’t an issue.
I am checked in, cleaned up and am about to cancel dinner with friends. Instead I think I really need to get some sleep. Tomorrow I will post the ship itinerary.
