48HRs & Counting
We’ve been stranded in the Istanbul Airport with thousands of strangers for the past 48 hours and counting. It’s unclear if Istanbul is not used to getting this much snow (though it was only about 6 inches over 10-12hrs), if worker shortages due to COVID, or, more likely, a combination of the two, have shut the airport down, but no flights have come in or gone out since we landed at 11am on Monday.
Ava and I have walked every inch of this airport, logging over 20,000 steps in the past 48hrs. We’ve played about a 100 hands of Rummy and a hundred more games of backgammon. We got our nails done, watched several movies, did some school work, and I even practiced a bit of guitar! We’ve eaten several good meals - four of them at the same restaurant.
Ava has been a complete rock star and is the perfect travel companion for a situation like this, even if she does keep beating me at cards!
After a sleepless night on a hard cold, floor with only our backpacks (filled with hard objects) for pillows, we purchased a neck pillow and pillow toy for last night and convinced the wonderful servers (also stranded for the past 48hrs+) at our ‘go-to’ restaurant to let us sleep on the cushioned benches last night. Even with the lights and extra loud rock music playing ALL NIGHT LONG, we got many more hours sleep than the two previous nights before.
We are feeling pretty good and optimistic that we may be able to get out of here today!
