Second Leave

I arrived in Finland at around midnight last night. It means that I won't be posting to this blog for a short while. The flight was late, which is the case more often than not. It was certainly no pleasure to sit in the very uncomfortable plane seat again for eleven hours, including two stopovers. Turkey is the only place where we get to disembark, but we might as well not, because it's a very depressing place. There is one toilet in the whole terminal, and it stinks. There are 'no smoking' -signs, but an ashtray just below them. The prices in the shop are ridiculous, except for alcohol, which we are not allowed to drink. Anyway, there we spend an hour or so, doing nothing, while the plane refuels and the crew is changed. This time was the first that we landed there during daylight, so we go to see the Black Sea, and those with a window seat, also the Hagia Sophia, which should of course not be confused with the real thing in Istanbul.


There was also a fire. Someone said there's always something on fire in Turkey.


Our plane. To the left some pilgrims are boarding their flight to Mecca, and to the right is the horizon of the Black Sea.

It feels really good to be home. The constant drizzle of rain doesn't bother me at all - it only means that there's no dust in the air. The darkness is almost as complete as in Aybak, and although it lasts a bit longer, there are more electric lights and less noise here.