October 4 Istanbul
I have been traveling for 30 hours and still not in Uzbekistan. We forget, sometimes, how big our planet really is. I arrived at 1AM in IST, the new airport outside of Istanbul and it is SHINY!! Everything seems to reflect and you often get disoriented from continuously finding yourself confronted by your own image in all of the mirrored surfaces.
This airport terminal is the biggest in the world but I really wasn’t prepared after such long days/nights to have to walk 32 minutes (yes I timed it), using moving walkways and really hoofing it, just to get to passport control. But I guess this is the way the gods punish you for NOT doing your morning exercises.
I arrived finally at the terminal proper and started looking for the hotel (Yotel) which allegedly is inside the terminal. It IS inside the terminal but getting there is another thing. I was politely instructed to “go to the end” and take the elevator up a level. The “other end” was a half mile away and when I got there I found the hotel was actually BACK to the “other end.” So no rest for me.
The hotel lists itself as “cabin” and I was on the Star Ship enterprise, except for the sexy little dresses. Everything was pod-y. Very compact and very no fuss. Looks great. BUT. . . why don’t hotels give you a bedside light so you can read before sleeping? (I carry one). Where is the clock? (I carry one). The pillow are big and fluffy but if you actually used them your chin would rest on your chest all night and this part of your body would be frozen forever gazing at the floor. I used a folded towel to serve as a real pillow.
