Istanbul, Turkey

Our passage through Munich was uneventful (except the I couldn’t find a green pepper chocolate bar that I had hoped to find there).

Flying into Attaturk airport, we passed right over Istanbul. There was an amazing view of the Bosphorus river, the Blue Mosque and the hippodrome. It gave me goosebumps. Can’t wait to spend time there at the end of the trip.

We had an unexpected surprise when we go off the plane. I had absolutely no idea that we needed a visa to visit Turkey. Luckily, it was not bad. Only a 20 minute wait or so to hand over a credit card. However, I don’t know what Canada and Australia did to tick off the Turks – we were charged triple to rate of everyone else!

After some confusion we were able to get into the Turkish Airlines lounge. Air Canada changed the way that they provide lounge access and apparently didn’t bother sharing that information with their partners. The lounge is quite amazing. Food, wine, and tea flows. There is a beautiful library, a pool table, a movie theatre complete with popcorn, a piano bar and an entire wall of televisions with news feeds from all over the world.

We are heading off on the last part of our marathon travel session. See you in Ashgabat.!