Airplanes and Airports

     This journey began with a flight leaving Dulles (IAD) on 28.08.2011 around 11,30pm and arrived in Turkey (IST) on 29.09 at 16.20 (Turkish Time).  The flight was through Turkish Airlines (Turk Hava Yollari) and was fairly interesting.  Throughout the ride I sat next a Persian on his way to Tabriz.  Unfortunately he was quite restless and every hour was marked with me moving so he could make his way to the aisle to perform various stretches and numerous trips to the toilet.  After the third or fourth time we just switched seats.  The coolest part of the flight was indeed the food.  As a snack we had hazelnuts and after some thought I discovered that I never had eaten just hazelnuts before.  They were awesome and for dinner we had grilled cod. 

     Arriving in Istanbul I purchased my visa for 15€ and made my way through customs and began a search for where I could check one of my bags.  I found such a place which charged me 15 Turkish Lirasi.  The metro station was near and unsure as to how to go about getting a token my hand fed the machine a 10 Lirasi note and it distributed two red plastic coins and a handful of single Lirasi coins.  Checking the metro map I was bewildered, nowhere marked a city centre.  I embarked and rode the metro out about 6 or 8 stops staring at the minarets that dotted the horizon.  Exploring the streets was fun until I realized that I still had no idea as to where the city centre lay and lacking a map the decision was finally reached that it was time to head back.

     The airport itself is massive.  It has to be the busiest airport I have ever been in.  Upon entrance one has to go through a security check.  Then another security check point where one enters in the foreign flights section.  While free wifi was advertised throughout the terminals, there was hardly a place to sit.  After a few hours of searching I finally managed to take advantage of a small table at some café.  A waiter approached and dropped off a menu and left.  The computer turned on and indeed there was free internet, three connections and at least another seven that were secured.  However none of them connected.  The waiter approached and I ordered a tea.  He looked sorely disappointed which is in a way ironic since I was disappointed at searching for a seat for hours to use their nonexistent internet.  Fair enough.

     Boarding the gate around 22,05 one had to go through another security check point.  This was the flight to Tbilisi.

     At first everyone who boarded the plane sat in their seats accordingly.  Then a girl and her mother asked some people in the row behind mine in English if they could trade with them so they could sit together.  The guys said, “no”.  Then she switched to Russian and the answer remained the same.  After these two rebuttals she said something else and without words the guys got up and moved.  The oddest part was that there were at least another three empty rows.

     The gentleman who sat beside me apparently preferred to travel with an entourage.  As the flight was taking off they promptly stood up and hung out near the guy in the aisle.  Then three of them got into the row in front of us and leaned across the seats to face him.  The musical chairs game continued on for at least another hour until they settled again, leaning across the seats.  The stewardesses delivered our meal, which they didn’t care for apparently and began stacking the uneaten food on the opposite aisle as if they were provisions.  All of them ordered Coca-Cola.  The most entertaining part of the flight was near the end as the plane was slowly lowering its altitude.  The stewardesses were preoccupied and the Georgian teens took advantage of the situation and raided the back room returning with their bounty.  Now when one is to literally pillage a kitchen I imagine that the first things to be taken would be any alcoholic product, followed by cooked red meat and so forth.  But these items didn’t hold any attraction to these young men.  What led to this operation was their quest for Coca-Cola and the two of them returned with a total of four bottles and thus began pouring their drinks into the original plastic cups that had been distributed at the beginning of the flight.  They laughed, they sang and for a while I sincerely doubted that they didn’t claim some sort of whiskey. 

     When the stewardesses came back to our portion of the isle their faces were painted with a mixture of vexation and ire.  They announced that seat belts must be utilized as the plane was preparing to make landing.  The Georgians said simply, “no”.  The airline employees began again and got the same answer.  So they decided to explain as to why the seat belts were necessary.  Their audience failed to appreciate this logic and simply declined.  When they left, defeated, one of the Georgians uttered the word:  “Scheiße”.  Naturally they weren’t impressed. 

           

     This time a steward returned and began to address the boys.  They sat and listened and stared defiantly.  The man explained:  “This seat belt rule.  Rule.  You need rule.  I cannot no rule.  Rule.  Understand.”  The teenagers nodded unscathed.  So the steward simply clicked their seat belts on.  As he started to leave he turned back and scolded, “This Scheiße, German, I know what it means and so do they.”

     Enough of that.  I’m staying at the Bazaleti Palace Hotel in Tbilisi until we’re moved to our assignments.  If you have ever seen The Shinning (and really there isn’t an excuse if you haven’t) you needn’t glance at their website.  It’s an entirely different design than as to what I’m familiar with but its perfectly accommodating.  Its tallied with small inconsistencies:  a bar that has a blaring television of music videos but no bartender (which could explain why its fully stocked),  our lamps our plugged in but have no light bulbs, the electrical sockets are about half a metre from the base of the floor while the light switches are about a whole metre and there is a phone that decorates the wall in the bathroom.