......but at the last leg of a very miserable trip that took two days, we had a bomb scare on the plane between Istanbul and Kosovo. I don't know exactly what happened because the pilot and stewardess were talking Turkish or Albanian over the loudspeaker. Funny how they always do those public announcements on the plane in two or three languages, but let things get real and the Yank is left on his own......
I do know that at the end of a very rough two-day journey to Istanbul, we boarded our flight about three hours late and it was one of those flights where they bus you out to an isolated spot on the runway and you board on one of those portable stairways. We get off the bus and the portable stairway has a flat tire so they couldn't push it up to the plane and we waited at least another half-hour to get that fixed.
We get on board and they finally push us back for takeoff. As the plane started taxiing on it's own, one of the stewardesses suddenly took off running to the back of the plane. I've seen stewardesses walk back and tell a passenger to turn off their phone while the plane was moving, but I've never seen one run like that. After a few seconds, she came running back to the front of the plane and grabs the phone to the pilot. I was sitting next to the window in aisle 7 so I could see everything and I thought to myself that couldn't be good.
By this time, the pilot had built up speed and had gotten into the holding pattern for take-off. We continued forward until it was time for us to take off and the pilot turned left and returned back to where we had boarded. If I thought I'd been tired and in a bad mood before, I was really getting irritated now and it didn't get better when I saw three police cars and a fire truck waiting for us.
As soon as we stopped, the portable stairway (with a new spare tire) was pushed up to the plane and three Turkish policemen boarded and went to the back and took some guy into custody (I'm thinking about the movie, Midnight Run).
Then one of the stewardesses walked down the aisle opening every overhead bin door. I figured I was going to be spending the night on a bench at the Istanbul airport, but they went through, very professionally, and had each piece of luggage identified by the owner and found what belonged to the arrested guy.
Then, because I'm sitting in a window seat, I watch one of those elevated ramp vehicles that loads luggage onto the plane drive up. Then came the police dogs. Thankfully, they didn't empty the luggage bay but did find his suitcase which they took out to an isolated place on the concrete.
After what seemed forever, we got the all-clear and took off again. Was I concerned? I don't remember: I slept almost all the way to Kosovo.
Despite being nearly five hours late, my contact from the embassy was still waiting for me when I arrived. We know each other from my training in Croatia several years ago and he's a real good guy and already talking about helping me travel around on my free days. I think this will be a real good job.
My hotel is really first-class:
I do know that at the end of a very rough two-day journey to Istanbul, we boarded our flight about three hours late and it was one of those flights where they bus you out to an isolated spot on the runway and you board on one of those portable stairways. We get off the bus and the portable stairway has a flat tire so they couldn't push it up to the plane and we waited at least another half-hour to get that fixed.
We get on board and they finally push us back for takeoff. As the plane started taxiing on it's own, one of the stewardesses suddenly took off running to the back of the plane. I've seen stewardesses walk back and tell a passenger to turn off their phone while the plane was moving, but I've never seen one run like that. After a few seconds, she came running back to the front of the plane and grabs the phone to the pilot. I was sitting next to the window in aisle 7 so I could see everything and I thought to myself that couldn't be good.
By this time, the pilot had built up speed and had gotten into the holding pattern for take-off. We continued forward until it was time for us to take off and the pilot turned left and returned back to where we had boarded. If I thought I'd been tired and in a bad mood before, I was really getting irritated now and it didn't get better when I saw three police cars and a fire truck waiting for us.
As soon as we stopped, the portable stairway (with a new spare tire) was pushed up to the plane and three Turkish policemen boarded and went to the back and took some guy into custody (I'm thinking about the movie, Midnight Run).
Then one of the stewardesses walked down the aisle opening every overhead bin door. I figured I was going to be spending the night on a bench at the Istanbul airport, but they went through, very professionally, and had each piece of luggage identified by the owner and found what belonged to the arrested guy.
Then, because I'm sitting in a window seat, I watch one of those elevated ramp vehicles that loads luggage onto the plane drive up. Then came the police dogs. Thankfully, they didn't empty the luggage bay but did find his suitcase which they took out to an isolated place on the concrete.
After what seemed forever, we got the all-clear and took off again. Was I concerned? I don't remember: I slept almost all the way to Kosovo.
Despite being nearly five hours late, my contact from the embassy was still waiting for me when I arrived. We know each other from my training in Croatia several years ago and he's a real good guy and already talking about helping me travel around on my free days. I think this will be a real good job.
My hotel is really first-class:
Definitely an upgrade over Kazakhstan.
More later.....
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