Istanbul

I feel I have come back to civilization. Poor Central Asia, I don't know why I am being so harsh this time. Last time I was there it was so magical, this time it was a hindrance. Maybe its age. Or because I miss my life, people, my friends, my world, a good sign actually...it seems I have become more stable, less of a nomad, and definitely less curious. I like my internal life maybe even more than the external one...

I finally took a shower in the stink bathroom. I just held my nose and went fast. I was afraid the steam from the shower would just accentuate the smell if I stayed in there too long.

I asked the receptionist for a wake up call but that meant she had to wake herself up first to wake me up which didn't feel very reliable. Six months ago I had a similar situation in Dushanbe and the guy overslept and I was given five minutes to get into a van full of people waiting on me to go to the airport. So last night I kept on waking up every two hours just to make sure.

Of course I also woke up exactly at 4:20, the subconscious is a powerful tool. She called as well, five minutes later. The cab pulled up as I came outside. I put the keys on the reception desk and walked to the cab. We started to drive off and I wondered had they paid him for the transfer that I paid for the night before? Suddenly the receptionist appeared, in a sleepy daze, with cash in her hand for the taxi driver.

We drove in darkness, back on that long Soviet street to the airport, the one that goes forever. Taxis zoomed passed us and I watched my driver's eyes through the rear view mirror to make sure he doesn't sleep. I pictured myself hitting his back to wake him up. We made it. There was one door the airport, like the top of the funnel everything poured in a tight spout and spilled out into the airport.

The waiting room for the Istanbul flight was mainly Europeans, swiss, brits, and a french couple. A huge American family too. I always wonder about those large American families a wholesome wife in a long skirt and hiking boots and minimum three kids...undeniably missionaries. I guess.

At the drinking hut in the waiting room we all got some tea, way overpriced at about a dollar fifty. Some Kyrgyz men in uniform took shots of some alcohol, ostensibly to wake up.

The flight had some of the most beautiful mountains I have seen. At one point midflight, we must have been over 20,000 feet in the air, snow capped mountain snuck over the clouds. At another point the sea met a desert and forming the top of a heart at the shore.