Istanbul to New York

We are sitting at a large restaurant, overlooking the airport, where Evie got us tea, simit and cheese. We sat down at Gloria Jeans, but the service was so snotty that we decided to leave…the first time I ever felt this way in Turkey. We were up at 5:00, had packed the night before, so we did not have much to do, only organize a bit. We left at 7:00 for the airport though our flight is not till 10:30 and took the sea road, my request. Traffic was amazingly light, so we said good by to Ortakoy, Besiktas, the Galata Bridge, the city walls, the new apartments. As we crossed the Galata Bridge, there were still at least 50-75 fishmen, dangling their lines over the edge. One wonders if they ever leave, if they ever sleep. It is really relaxing sitting her, sipping tea in an airy restaurant, in no hurry, waiting for our flight, so much better than waiting at home, wondering if you will be on time. Our tickets, by the way, are the emergency row: somehow Agop managed to get them reserved for us, something unheard of but he did it. What a man, what a country, one where anything is possible.
We spent a lot of time in the airport shops, as we wanted to stock up on a few more Turkish objects, so we ended up buying a four foot chain of beads and evil eyes for around 40 bucks, no deal I am sure. I got a BJK hat and key chain, just in case I need it. Evie really didn’t seem interested in much of anything, as we already had lots of everything one could imagine. It was a busy place, with lots of people stocking up on things before leaving for outside the country. Unfortunately, our flight was close to two hours late, so we had to kill time shopping. The trip was fine, especially since we had emergency row seats, the meals fine, and though I hardly slept, I did watch two or three movies, as our plane was the new 787, or something like that, with an amazing array of options for music, video, tv shows, almost asnything you might want, all for free. The only down side was the guy who sat behind us coughed incessantly, then would move up, and kind of cough on us, something that made the journey less enjoyable then it might have been. The flight was very easy, little turbulence, and the guy who sat next to me was a Russian Jew, who grew up in the US, and had just returned from Uzbekistan, where he, like us, had friends who took care of his needs every day. It sounds like it might have been mostly eating and drinking, in enormous amounts, which he said he need a few days to recover from. He seems to import jewelery to the US, maybe even diamonds, things like that, and offered to take care of us if we ever wanted something.
We arrived around 4:30, two hours late, breezed through customs, though they checked our bas when we said we had spices, but it took a second. Our driver was waiting for us, and since traffic was light, despite the time, rush hour, we made it to Darien easily, though it cost us 170 bucks. The end of a wonderful trip.