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Istanbul Airport

22 March 2024

Living in Italy for nearly 14 years means that I have sampled many wines and cheeses and most of the wine is about 14% alcohol while the cheese is free from alcohol entirely.  There is a joke there somewhere and nobody is obligated to laugh or spit out their coffee or snort. 

Today I walked for about an hour inside the Istanbul airport and passed a couple of bars that served burgers, liquor, beer, and wine.  I kept walking as I wanted to know where my gate was; I knew from previous adventures in this airport a person might have to walk fast to make a connection and even though my head was turning left and right my feet kept on walking forward.  I finally found my gate, a bathroom, and a bottle of water though probably not in that exact order.  I tried to get another hour of Wi-Fi, but that was not an option.  I looked up from the Wi-Fi kiosk and saw a place call the BI Café and Bar.  The “I” might be questionable in this part of the world.  It was actually a martini icon so who knows what the name of the place actually is. 

This is Ramadan and I didn’t really know whether a person could get a glass of wine, but I thought I’d give it a try.  I had tried this at my hotel in Bahrain at their Poolside Bar.  I walked through a very beautiful facsimile of a Japanese garden, looked through their menu and selected an alcoholic drink only to be told they only sold non-alcoholic drinks during Ramadan.  It was no big deal as I still had a lot of work to do, and my head needed to be clear.

Yay!  Capitalism wins again and I was able to purchase a glass of white wine in Turkey for the very low price of 574 Turkish Lira.  That’s about $15 but who is complaining.  There is something wonderful about having a glass of wine at this time of the year in this part of the world.   

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.

1995

20 March 2024

Bahrain

I met a very kind and welcoming person in the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain.  Before one of my assessments of the base she struck up a conversation about the tie I was wearing and how she recognized me from last year because of how beautiful they are--many thanks to my father in-law for giving me so many to choose from.  The essence of this person is so pure and kind, she is one of the people you long to meet while on the sunny side of the planet.

She and I began to discuss Saudi Arabia and how it is now working toward being a tourist destination and how things have changed in the past several years.  I have very fond memories from the six months I spent in there in 1995 and I told her about my visit to the ARAMCO complex, how a family had adopted my USAF weather flight, how that family would provide a homemade meal, and how I would bring bacon and real vanilla to them as they couldn’t get it on the SA economy.  She didn’t wince.

I then went on to talk about how I lived and worked in SA and that I left six months before “they” blew up the place where I slept—about 300 feet away.  As soon as those words left my mouth I wish I could have taken them back.  Her expression was one of such genuine pain.  My words hurt this innocent person who calls Bahrain home.  This is someone who constantly helps the U.S. Navy and my words hurt her even though she was not even born at that time. 

We talked later and she was very magnanimous and gave me her card.  I look forward to meeting her again and look forward to her insights.  What a great human!

15 Seconds

Somewhere over Italy

18 February2024

Shortly after boarding my plane in Naples Italy, a family of four sat across the aisle and began to settle in.  Unfortunately the youngest member of that family would not be settled until we landed in Rome, and hour after we boarded the plane.

I have watched many horror movies over the years, and I have never heard a gut-wrenching scream as this 3-year old’s scream.  And the scream was sustained for an hour.  The mother tried taking the child to the rear of the plane and the father watched over the other child.  That child was well behaved and not just because she was quiet.  She was an angel in her own right.  The mother was beside herself.  The father could only hang his head.

Fellow passengers tolerated as much as possible, though one lady walked up and tried to help the child.  Did I mention that this was a stranger trying to help a child who was already out of control?  All I could do was move from the aisle seat to the window, turn up my podcasts, and breathe deeply, again and again. 

When the pilot landed the plane with a thud the crying child stopped for about 15 seconds and then started screaming again.  And then, two minutes later, the child fell asleep.

45.5 Mbps

Somewhere over America

4 February 2024

As I sat in the Delta flight from New York City to Fort Lauderdale I turned on the entertainment system and turned on the movie Star Wars.  It had been nearly 46 years since I first watched my favorite movie and I didn’t need to put on my headsets as I knew the dialog like the back of my hand.

Back then there was no way to watch the movie except in the movie theater unless you count the excerpts marketed on Super 8 film reels.  So, back to the theater I went at least a couple of times in 1977.  Then I replayed the movie as I lay on my living room floor listening to the soundtrack on the LP album.  No CDs yet, only cassette tapes and 8-track players were available to the public, and as it turns out, LP sound was really good.  

As I sat on that plane I tried the free WIFI connection and then tested its speed.  Wow!  45.5 Mbps was the download speed; as fast as my home connection in Naples Italy and nearly as fast as my home in New York.  I was able to surf the net as I glanced at the movie and enjoyed both experiences equally.  WIFI connections were through Wichita, Kansas via some orbiting satellite and eventually through the terrestrial network simply called the internet.  None of those technologies existed in 1977.

I am happy to spend a few minutes typing on a laptop that was just a dream 46 years ago and look forward to seeing what miracles appear in the near future.