The Fifth Day

Friday, my last day if all went well, I headed out at dawn for the US Embassy. 30 YTL later, I saw this huge building built into the side of a hill ala the Vampire Castle in the last scene of the movie Dusk to Dawn, and this was the embassy: a contemporary fort.

The people were very nice, and the doors and walls were all very thick. It was an eerie place.

In less than an hour I had a temporary passport, and my travel plans were back on schedule. Whew!

I took a cab back, by the coast road (the first driver had taken my by the "high road"). It looked a lot different than the high road. The high road went by New Istanbul stuff -- lots of high rises -- and the coast road went by a succession of rich estates from different eras... new things to learn about...

But now I was done. I didn't want to start a "big touring project" and potentially miss my plane, but I had eight hours before departure....

I gave up: I couldn't think of anything to do, so I checked out, and took the Metro (Subway) to the airport. The Metro gave me yet another view Istanbul, and I was at the airport way early.

Ah well... there were plenty of x-ray machines and metal detectors to go through, so I was happy to be early.

	A mosaic in the Ataturk airport.
	The lobby of the hotel attached to the airport.
	One of the corridors, next to the hotel.

The flight left 30 minutes late. But the bigger problem was I'd been assigned one of the emergency row exit seats. These, in theory, have more leg room than a regular seat, so seat assignors think they are doing me a favor giving me one. In practice they have much less hip room than a regular seat, and I can't fit into them.

I moved into the seat behind, but the Korean lady who had been assigned that seat was hard-nosed and didn't want to move to the seat I'd been assigned to. In the end, I was moved into first class. (awww!!) So I spent the ten hour flight back with a lot more leg room, and better meals.

The only thing I didn't have that I really wanted was a window. The plane was once again flying over exotic central Asia -- places I've seen on the map, such as Aral Sea, and I really wanted to see, them, too. But much of the trip was during a dark, moonless night, so there was little for me to see, even if I had a window seat.

And... that was my trip.

	The famous mud flats of Incheon. These were partly why an amphibious invasion was considered impossible at Incheon.
	A factory overlooking the mud flats.
	A rice paddy flooded to make a winter skating rink.

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