Living in Houston and moving to Yanbu afforded me the opportunity to fly Turkish Airlines. There is one connection from IAH to YNB, in Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, the hub for Turkish. I departed at 8:25 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7th. I would fly for almost 12 hours and advance through 8 time zones to arrive in Istanbul at 2:20 p.m. local time on July 8th. I then had a lengthy layover before departing on the red-eye to Yanbu on July 9th at 1:45 in the morning. I landed in Yanbu at 5:10 a.m. and got on with my life.
This is the story of my travel through time and space from Texan to expat. (That may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever written, so I’m keeping it for historical records. It’s pretty close to a panegyric on chocolate dipped crullers).
It’s pretty common to get business class for expat relocation. Business class on Turkish is by default what I always called first class. They have business, economy comfort, and bleacher seats. This is not normal for me. Here’s a word from our sponsors:
With that being said, I could get used to it.
I usually hang back during boarding to avoid the crowd, so I took the opportunity to board first to avoid the crowd. I had selected an aisle seat during online check-in in the middle section of the 2-3-2 that was otherwise empty. My luck didn’t hold, as two guys were already sitting in the row when I arrived. And the guy in the middle was a talker, but he was with the guy in the next seat, so I held out hope for peace and quite. Note the attempted occupation of the shared armrest by my traveling companion in the picture of our welcome drink.
My Lemon-Mint. His phone, wallet and wine.
So I farted. And he moved. No not really, at least not the farting part. He decided to relocate to another empty seat, so I reclaimed my armrest and settled in. His former seat mate leaned over to me and said, “Now we have more room. I can’t stand that guy.”
If my doctor is reading, I did not eat dessert. For everyone else, it was a mixed fruit compote with fresh whipped cream. There is no photographic evidence and I will deny utterly and completely. The seat reclined 170 degrees. The steward came and placed the sleeping set on the seat. After I finished eating, I slept.
I woke up over Germany. The entertainment system had the option to view cameras mounted outside the cabin.
The rest of the flight was smooth. Breakfast, hot towels and watching the approach.
We deplaned and I stepped on Europe for the first time. We got on a bus for the ride to the terminal and wondered around for a bit. More on that in the next post.
From Tennessee To Texas to Saudi Arabia 