Flying for Sheila and I is a relatively enjoyable experience,
there is something really cool about getting on a plane and being someplace new
in a few hours. Now flying overseas is a bit different, it’s not a few hours
and generally involves layovers and many, many hours in a seat designed for
hobbits. In this case it’s also a bit heartbreaking not taking the whole
family, there is that little tiny aspect in the back of your mind where you
know if the plane crashes your toast and will never see your kids again and you
worry about who will take care of them. It’s a feeling I think every parent
just needs to really bury deep and try to ignore. This trip we try to see as
two wonderful things, one getting to explore a part of Eastern Europe which we
both love and dream of doing more and two (the most important thing!!) is
getting a new piece of our family puzzle. We set into this journey with a lot
of happiness and a lot of optimism.
After the quiet airport dinner we felt great and ready to
go, the flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 PM with a 2 hour layover in
Chicago, when the plane finally arrived in Minneapolis around 8:45 and we got
boarded around 9:00 and in the air around 9:15 we thought we still had plenty
of time to get to our connection in O’Hare. The plane to Chicago was a smaller
and this was only its third flight, so it was decked out with the latest and
greatest in aviation technology (i.e…looked like the old ones but smelled new) we
upgraded our seats to economy plus in the 5th row which gives you an
extra six inches of leg room. I would recommend this to anyone over 5’5” and
for those of us over 6’ it’s almost a requirement. This leg was a breeze and a
pretty short flight, we were kind of happy not to have that longer layover in
Chicago. The flight attendant told us exactly where we needed to go to get to
the Turkish Airlines terminal at O’Hare. In order to get to it we had to walk
fairly quickly and find the tram, this meant leaving the secure zone and going
through security again at the other terminal. I’ve been through lots of
airports, but never O’Hare so we didn’t realize these facts. Once we found the
tram it was just waiting for it to arrive, the recorded message said a tram
would arrive every 8 minutes. OK 8 minutes, we can handle that, until the tram
arrived and wouldn’t leave, something broke down and they were already down to one
tram instead of two. It sat there and sat there minutes ticking by, we started
to panic a little, boarding time for our flight was 10:20 and it was 10:30
already with a departure of 11:00 scheduled. We asked someone who appeared to
work at the airport if there was another way to the terminal and he said
nothing that wouldn’t take an hour.
Freaking out we started texting our friend Leah who was
checking the flight schedule, it appeared the plane to Istanbul was running
late, a small reprieve although oddly enough we couldn’t find a gate posting
for that flight anywhere. Finally the tram starts running again, unfortunately
for us the wrong way, it had to go to terminals 1 & 2 first, so 4 minutes
later we are on the tram and heading to terminal 5. Thank goodness we checked
everything but our back packs because we were running up the stairs and into
the terminal hoping beyond all belief that security was not busy, which
thankfully it was not. I don’t think I have ever actually gone through security
so fast, they commended us on how well we knew the process…lol. Once in the
main concourse we found our gate number and sprinted again to find the happy
people at Turkish Air waiting anxiously for their last missing passengers. I
did make the failed attempt to see if there was any first class upgrades. The
last flight although short was wreaking havoc on Sheila's sinuses causing some major
headaches, so I was hoping we could at least get her a first class seat so she
could lie down, no such luck though and onto the plane we went.
Now this was one of the big planes, many rows of seats deep,
8 seats across from side to side and the tiniest aisles that even hobbits
couldn’t fit through. We were the last on board, sweating and carrying what
appeared, on this plane anyway huge backpacks which I had to constantly apologize
to people for hitting them with as we were taking the walk of shame to the back
of the airplane. We instantly knew we were not on an American airline as there
was Turkish music playing and it was literally 90 degrees according to my
phone. The seats on this flight were
tiny compared to the last flight, but most importantly we were on and did not
have to hassle with rebooking and staying in Chicago any longer. 10 minutes
after boarding we were heading for Europe.
Thankfully once we were in the air it started to cool down.
The sinus pressure came back for Sheila and I was starting to feel a little run
down. My intention was to take some Nyquil and sleep through most of this
flight but man I have a hard time sleeping sitting up and I think we were both
wide awake from the rush of adrenaline of almost missing the flight. We decided
to stay awake until the food service came, which was a surprisingly delicious
meal of a chicken and pasta dish with red wine, a tiny salad, some type of
quinoa looking thing with a tomato in it, bread and a desert that was kind of
like cheesecake. Very tasty for airline food! Well-fed, now it was time to
sleep until the turbulence started, this was the kind of turbulence that had
the stewards put the carts away and buckle up and dinner to think about
revisiting your lap. Not cool or fun, but the time it stopped we were about
half way through the flight and finally both started to fall asleep, but it was
that kind of sleep where you are sitting straight up and open your eyes every
10 minutes, look around and remember you’re on a plane still. All in all I
think we both got maybe 3-4 hours of this restless sleep before they turned all
the lights up and served breakfast. I wish I could remember what breakfast was,
I do know I ate something relatively tasty and sat there in a daze for the
final hour of this flight.
Coming into Istanbul it was cloudy and raining so we couldn’t
see anything cool from the sky. The airport in Istanbul was not as big as I
imagined or as nice, it’s not the worst but definitely not the best as far as
airports go. We only had about an hour to be there so we people watched and reminisced
about how you notice while travelling to overseas the changes you go through.
Obviously in the US you hear plenty of English and on your flight out of
country some accents and dual languages, in this case Turkish and English. Once
in Istanbul you primarily hear foreign tongues with plenty of English mixed in
and most of these airports have English signage so you can make you way around.
Then usually you are going into a non-hub final destination where you are lucky
to hear any English and most signs have none either. It’s like each step
becomes more and more disorienting. This was true of our flight into Serbia. The
last leg was also Turkish Air going into Belgrade, this flight is just a bit
longer than the Minneapolis to Chicago, but instead of Turkish and English it
has switched to Turkish and Serbian announcements.
Another quick meal of a turkey sandwich, salad,
some type of crackers and cheese and a chocolate mousse were served. Not too
bad, but honestly by this time we had been either in an airport or on an
airplane for coming on 22 hours. Both Sheila and I were no longer feeling fresh
and happy, we were both sick and incredibly tired. My cold had gone from in
control and barely there to kicking my butt big time. It was time to get out of
the airport. Passport control was a breeze, I learned after my trips to Ukraine
and Russia that they sit in a dark booth, will not let you approach until
called, will not speak to you in English even if they know it, will say some
threatening sounding things to you before stamping your passport and then they
give you back your passport and start glaring at the next person in line. It
used to scare me, now I just want to get through and get my bags. Ours were the
first on the belt and out we went through the green zone with nothing to
declare. Going out the doors to the public area always make me feel like a
celebrity, there are lots of smiling people there waiting for loved ones and
many, many smiling cabbies and limo drivers looking for a fare. We fortunately
we quickly found by Zoran the COCI coordinator for Serbia and very nice gentleman
whom we will talk more about soon. For now we were just happy to be on the
ground and heading for a place to sleep!
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