I started
my travel at around 5 p.m. on Saturday the 23rd. Going by train to Manchester
airport, I was aware that I would have to spend about 3-4 hours inside the
airport. This time, I carried with me just one suitcase and one laptop bag. En
route, my baggage will increase, as it always does!
Due to the
onset of vacation time in the U.K., tickets to India weren't so cheap. I
finally managed to find a trip that was reasonably priced; the catch, however,
was that there would be a layover at Istanbul airport for over 13 hours. I left
for Manchester airport by train, arriving there at around 6:15 p.m. I would be
travelling by Turkish airlines. The flight time was 23:40 hours, and I had to
while away my time in the airport, having food, relaxing, surfing the net, etc.
until it was time for check-in to be announced. It was at about 11 p.m. that we
finally collected at the gate from where we would board the aircraft awaiting
us. (By us, I mean my fellow passengers, of course).
The actual
boarding started after another 15 minutes, and the aircraft finally took off
near around mid-night. I saw the newly made Disney movie Jungle Book. Food on
the flight was quite okay, consisting of beef pattice on rice, bread, butter,
dessert and, finally, tea.
I reached
Ataturk International airport at around 05:30 a.m. The arrivals lounge was
quite busy even at that hour. Transit passengers were all directed to the
transit counters and then the international lounge, where I have been waiting
since then until now, when I have begun to write this draft that will
eventually appear on my blog.
I have had
the occasion to meet a few people. The first was a mother-daughter duo
travelling to Boston, Massachusetts. Mom and Dad live in Dhahran in KSA, where
the dad is a university teacher. They have four children, two of whom are
already married and settled in the U.S. One is a younger son, who is with the
parents. The last is the daughter who
was accompanying her mom today. She has secured admission to a course on
Politics in the University of Maryland, and they were flying there for her to
start her course. They had a wait of over six hours.
After they
left, I was joined by a Nigerian student of Hotel Management. Sarah is pursuing
education in this course in Cyprus. Currently, she was travelling to her home
country to meet her family. She, too, has a wait of nearly eight hours at the
airport.
For lunch,
I had a chicken hamburger with potato crisps and a diet coke. My new friend could
not find something suitable and settled for just fries and a coke. Perhaps she
would eat a more substantial meal later.
I have had the pleasure of meeting yet another
interesting man, Philippe René Nsoa, a Cameroonian judge by profession. This gentleman was returning home from a work
trip to Malta, where he had gone to attend a judges' workshop. The sad thing
was that he missed his flight yesterday evening, and has to wait until today
evening (a total of 24 hours) at the airport. Additionally, he had to shell out
€200 to purchase
a new ticket.
In the later part of the afternoon, I had the
occasion to meet Anjum, a Kenyan British person of Indian origin. This young,
recently married girl is an auxillary nurse working in the community at
Manchester. She had been to Male to be with her in-laws, and had arrived at
Ataturk around the same time as me, and sitting just a few tables away from where
I was during the entire morning. Now, she is returning to Manchester on an
evening flight.
Wikipaedia
would give you the exact details of this airport. What I wish to state here is
that it is a very busy airport, huge in size, and handling at least 700-800
flights a day across its nearly 500 departure/arrival gates. The food court is
FULL of travellers, and the tables at the side where people like me sit down to
spend the whole day, perhaps placing our heads on the table and napping, and
looking at the thousands of people who are all around me.
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