Our journey started bright and early Friday morning with a 5 AM departure on the Birnie Bus from Hamilton. I don’t know what people were more excited about–the fact that we were finally going to Turkey or that Rabbi Dena brought us Dunkin Donuts for the bus ride. Through heavy snowfall we drove to JFK and then proceeded to fly directly to Istanbul.
I wish I could give a more riveting account of the plane ride, but somewhere over the Atlantic I completely passed out. My brain was definitely still recovering from the two midterms and research paper I had earlier this week, so when I wasn’t sleeping, my eyes were glued on the personal TV in front of me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Turkish Airlines for having such profound, thought-provoking, classic movies to choose from , but I watched none of them. Instead, Miss Congeniality, John Tucker Must Die, New Year’s Eve, and Black Swan made my plane ride survivable.
It felt so good to finally stretch our legs upon landing. We arrived around 7 AM local time, got our Visas and luggage, and started our quest to find Turkish coffee before proceeding with the day’s itinerary.