Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

It was still snowing for my last day in Istanbul, spoiling the last chance for a cruise up the Bosporus on this trip. Maybe next time I'm here, the weather will cooperate. Maybe next time, I won't come in the dead of winter.

I totally failed to sleep before needing to leave for the airport, and not for want of trying. I finally just gave up at 2am, packed, and caught a taxi to the airport. Alitalia hadn't opened their check-in desk, so that meant sitting around for a while. I searched in vain for a drop box for the last of my post cards, so I left them (stamped) on the counter of the not-yet-open post office kiosk. Hopefully they'll be found and mailed.

I dozed a little on the way to Rome. My layover there was almost the perfect length. Long enough to get through security (for the third time that morning. In Istanbul, you have to clear security before they'll even let you in the terminal, and then again before they'll let you on a plane), find my gate, get a snack, change my Turkish Lira for Euros, and pick up some Italian candy that my sister likes, but not long enough to get bored or fall asleep.

I slept fitfully through the transatlantic flight. I was too tired to get a lot of reading done, so I finished the trip with about half of a book to spare. Phew.

Anaka picked me up at the airport, where we got a snack and waited for my father's flight from Tel Aviv to arrive. I don't know how it happened that we were both returning within a couple hours of each other, since I know we didn't actually choose the flights for that. Lucky.