0.031

22 March 2024

Istanbul Airport

I had about three hours in the Istanbul airport and decided to walk to the gate, any gate.  My flight was not going to have a gate on the board for two hours, so I checked my Turkish Airlines app and it said F9A.  I have been to this airport many times and to say it is big is really an understatement.  Naturally, I only learned that I had gone the wrong way after getting a one-hour Wi-Fi password from the many kiosks in the main part of the terminal.  I found out later that this password was only good once and after that first hour a person had could not access Wi-Fi without paying about $10 for two hours.  Not a big deal, but out of a need to protest this bad policy I did not choose to pay the cost and reward their bad policy.

While I was in the wrong part of the airport, I stopped in a Lego store and saw a bunch of really nice kits.  My glasses were in my pocket and had I used them I would have known that the prices were in Euros not Liras.  The price on a couple of huge Star Wars kits was about 900.  I left the store and walked in the direction of my gate only to stop after about 15 minutes to ponder what the exchange rate was.  0.031 Lira equaled a U.S. Dollar.  After a quick bit of math, I realized I could buy those really huge Star Wars kits for about $30.  What a steal.  Grandkids smiling faces was all I could see. 

I walked back towards the Legos store and couldn’t find it.  I had walked to the end of the terminal and had been looking on the wrong side of the huge walkway.  This airport terminal has a huge walkway.  How huge? About the width of 5th Avenue.  The center is often obstructed with high-end shops that compete with high-end shops on either side.  I turn around and walked back in the direction of my future flight gate and saw the Legos store.  Armed with my glasses, I was more than a bit disappointed when I looked at the price tags and they were all in Euros.  Ouch.  That 900 number was in Euros not Liras.  $1,000 instead of $30.  Oh well.  I got a bit of exercise as I walked back and forth across the huge terminal with hope and disappointment.