My flight from India left at 5.55am. I stopped for 4 hours in Kuwait then flew to Cairo. I was incredibly sleep deprived the entire journey so when I got to Cairo instead of spending the 8 hours with my family, I accidentally slept for 6 hours, leaving only 2 hours for my family.
At midnight my aunt drove me to various family members for me to say goodbye to. I'm not sure when I'll be back in Egypt again, (it's really dependant on where I find work), so these goodbyes were quite important.
I decided to wear the green sari that I wore for the Study India programme closing event as I was doing my goodbye-rounds. Just thought I'd bring a little India to the family and all. I also decided that I wanted to get married in a sari and have all the guests where saris as well!
I flew from Cairo at 3am and arrived in Istanbul almost 3 hours later. I was amazed at the disorganisation at Istanbul airport. People with connecting flights had to stand in a massive, disorganised and sluggish queue.
Now, I'll now try to justify the reason I missed my connecting flight from Istanbul to London. The main reason was that my watch was one hour behind Turkish time. Now I blame the Egyptian government for this.
One of the first things they did in 2011 when they took 'power' was to abolish the summer daylight saving time. What this meant for me was that although Cairo and Istanbul look geographically like they should have the same time zones (actually if anything Cairo should be ahead of Istanbul) Cairo is in fact one hour behind Istanbul. To make matters worse, the in-flight TV was telling me that the time at origin and time at destination were exactly the same!
After I made it out of the queue I thoguht that I still had time to wander around the shops. Of course I was gravely mistaken and as I was debating whether to buy a book on Islam or one on learning Turkish, my plane was already in the air.
When my watch informed me that it was probably time to check the TV screen again, I was horrified to find that my flight was not even showing up on the screen. I frantically ran to the help desk where I was greeted by a woman who was half-asleep. Through half-opened eye lids she told me the gate number of my flight.
I tightened the straps of my rucksack so that it wouldn't swing right and left as I ran through the airport. I began cursing Istanbul and the Turkish and the Egyptian government and watches and slapping my head repeatedly.
I got to the gate and it was completely deserted. Only the cleaners were left.
'Finished madame', one of them said to me.
I didn't give up. I ran back to the help desk but a long queue had formed. I pushed to the front.
'Excuse me but could you get some more people to work behind the desk'. There was only one woman and a queue of 10 or so people waiting to be seen.
'There's another desk downstairs she whispered'.
Like a crazy fool I ran downstairs, right, left dodging people and bags as I went. I asked the woman at the desk and informed me of the fact that I'd missed the flight by at least an hour.
After taking a few deep breaths and clearing my head I asked if I could reschedule my flight.
'The only flight with space is in the evening, at 7pm', she said.
Dissapointment at having to wait for almost 12 hours gave way to excitement. This meant I'd be able to see Istanbul! And that's exactly what I did.
At midnight my aunt drove me to various family members for me to say goodbye to. I'm not sure when I'll be back in Egypt again, (it's really dependant on where I find work), so these goodbyes were quite important.
I decided to wear the green sari that I wore for the Study India programme closing event as I was doing my goodbye-rounds. Just thought I'd bring a little India to the family and all. I also decided that I wanted to get married in a sari and have all the guests where saris as well!
I flew from Cairo at 3am and arrived in Istanbul almost 3 hours later. I was amazed at the disorganisation at Istanbul airport. People with connecting flights had to stand in a massive, disorganised and sluggish queue.
Now, I'll now try to justify the reason I missed my connecting flight from Istanbul to London. The main reason was that my watch was one hour behind Turkish time. Now I blame the Egyptian government for this.
One of the first things they did in 2011 when they took 'power' was to abolish the summer daylight saving time. What this meant for me was that although Cairo and Istanbul look geographically like they should have the same time zones (actually if anything Cairo should be ahead of Istanbul) Cairo is in fact one hour behind Istanbul. To make matters worse, the in-flight TV was telling me that the time at origin and time at destination were exactly the same!
After I made it out of the queue I thoguht that I still had time to wander around the shops. Of course I was gravely mistaken and as I was debating whether to buy a book on Islam or one on learning Turkish, my plane was already in the air.
When my watch informed me that it was probably time to check the TV screen again, I was horrified to find that my flight was not even showing up on the screen. I frantically ran to the help desk where I was greeted by a woman who was half-asleep. Through half-opened eye lids she told me the gate number of my flight.
I tightened the straps of my rucksack so that it wouldn't swing right and left as I ran through the airport. I began cursing Istanbul and the Turkish and the Egyptian government and watches and slapping my head repeatedly.
I got to the gate and it was completely deserted. Only the cleaners were left.
'Finished madame', one of them said to me.
I didn't give up. I ran back to the help desk but a long queue had formed. I pushed to the front.
'Excuse me but could you get some more people to work behind the desk'. There was only one woman and a queue of 10 or so people waiting to be seen.
'There's another desk downstairs she whispered'.
Like a crazy fool I ran downstairs, right, left dodging people and bags as I went. I asked the woman at the desk and informed me of the fact that I'd missed the flight by at least an hour.
After taking a few deep breaths and clearing my head I asked if I could reschedule my flight.
'The only flight with space is in the evening, at 7pm', she said.
Dissapointment at having to wait for almost 12 hours gave way to excitement. This meant I'd be able to see Istanbul! And that's exactly what I did.
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