Your Man in Istanbul

The delay leaving JFK was four hours, and it was at the gate–but after boarding. But Turkish Airlines was notable for what it didn’t do. It didn’t keep giving us pointless updates (“we’re 38th in line for take-off”). When it was time to go, we went. They didn’t act like people were unreasonable for getting up to pee, and when it was time to take-off they didn’t freak out about making everyone sit down posthaste. And they didn’t forget to crank up the A/C or dole out lots of beverages while we were waiting. Memo to American carriers: free fluids will keep trapped passengers happy for hours.

A day later and that peeled-grapes-eye feeling later, I’m in Istanbul, the greatest achievement of Islamic civilization. An amazing world-class city with layer upon layer of history, architectural and otherwise, no one should die without having seen it.

Tomorrow I’ll go see “Spider-Man 3.” (Istanbul has a highly developed movie culture.) Then, it’s off to Dushanbe, where blogging may or may not be possible.