To begin rehearsals for the international tour of Beauty and the Beast, I had to first make it to Istanbul. Now as traveling to a foreign country goes, I suppose that my journey could have been much worse. It did make for a long day though!
I started my day with a flight that left Chicago's Midway airport at 9:15am (5:15pm in Turkey) to fly to New York's Laguardia Airport. Thankfully my flight was not affected by the crazy guy who tried to burn down the Aurora Flight Control center because he was angry about being transferred to Hawaii!
After landing at Laguardia Airport at noon, I then had over 7 hours until my next flight at JFK Airport. Normally the temptation for me to go into Manhattan is very strong, but two 49.999 pound bags are difficult enough to deal with let alone rolling them around the streets of Manhattan! Thankfully I was able to leave them at a friend's apartment in Brooklyn. I did have a purpose for going into Manhattan, but sadly I did not find my oboe mandral. I did however have a knockoff cronut and creme brie cheesecake at Paris Baguette!
After failing in my mission, I made it back to Brooklyn and decided to get a car to JFK early. Travel days tend to make me jittery and incapable of just sitting around. When I got to the airport I saw our trumpet player right away so we took the plunge and checked in. Because we were so early that left time to wander around the airport, and well airports make me want to eat so I chose a Shake Shack burger and fries as my last meal in America. I also decided to exchange some currency. I am always a bit skeptical of technology, and I wanted to have some play money to spend in case my bank cards did not work in Turkey!
Our flight left JFK at 10:20pm (6:20 am in Turkey) and flew us to Milan, Italy. For the first of our group flights we were flying Emirates which has a deserved reputation for being one of the better airlines.
The 2 meals that they served were very good, each seat had its own TV screen with an overwhelming selection of movie and TV shows to watch, and the seats had a sufficient amount of leg room. What more could anyone want?
We landed in Milan at 12:15pm (1:15pm in Turkey), and even though we were connecting to another flight we had to go through customs and check in again to our next flight.
We landed in Milan at 12:15pm (1:15pm in Turkey), and even though we were connecting to another flight we had to go through customs and check in again to our next flight.
Our second group flight was on Turkish Airlines and flew us from Milan to Istanbul. We left Milan at 4:00pm (5:00pm in Turkey).
Our flight on Turkish Airlines also turned out to be very pleasant. They too fed us a meal so in total I had three airplane meals, two meals in NYC, breakfast in Chicago, and of course various snacks along the way. At no point during my travel day did I feel hungry!
We finally landed at about 7:45pm in Istanbul. Having made it through customs and baggage claim, we boarded our bus to take us to the hotel. Well when I said boarded what I mean is that we got to the bus (singular) quickly discovered that the large number of people with their 3-4 bags each were not going to fit on this bus. We then all stood around until the decision was made to squeeze everyone on the bus and then wedge all of the bags that did not fit underneath into the aisles. It was an interesting trip, but we finally made it to the hotel after 9pm. So after my 28 hour travel day I had a shot of raki and went to bed. When I woke up in the morning and saw the above view out of my hotel room, I felt that it was all worth it!
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