Istanbul to Chicago
Trip Start
May 17, 2006
1
16
Trip End
Jun 01, 2006
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Chicago,
Illinois,
United States
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Return to Chicago
I turn out the light at 11:30pm, only to have a wake-up call at 2:30 this morning. Three hours of sleep is pure hell. I expect I will sleep the entire way across the Atlantic from London to Chicago.
The reason I arise at 2:30 is to do what I call the Japanese waving ceremony (where someone always comes out of the hotel to wave as you drive away) for one of my clients who is departing the hotel at 3:15am. We reach the lobby at 3:00am, and his driver is already there and waiting for him. I return to the room to shower and pack and post one more blog page to the internet.
I share a ride to the airport at 6am with my deaf client (flying Air France to Paris), and another client who is on my flight to Munich. I help the Air France passenger find his way and get in the check-in line, and then I search out the Lufthansa check-in station. The Istanbul airport is sprawling with a million different check-in lines for a million different international carriers. My United Premier Executive status enables me to use the Business Lounge, so I invite the client who is on my flight to join me. We are both ready to expire from fatigue.
I sit next to two lovely young women from Mississippi on the flight to Munich. They are dance instructors at the University level. I tell them about my daughter's undergraduate major (which involved dance as an alternative approach to healing), and about my own folk-dance background.
We are surrounded by a group of about 30 Turkish men who all seem to know each other very well, and are having a boisterous time. I ask the fellow sitting across the aisle from me if they are all friends. He says yes. Out of the blue I am inspired to ask if they are a football team, and he says yes, they are going to play in Austria.
Later a young man sitting next to him, and who speaks excellent English because he has been to the United States many times, explains that they are on a team of retired footballers. I joke that I am thinking they are looking a little gray in the beard. He encourages me to watch the game and I explain that I am heading to Chicago and will probably not be able to find it on any channels there. He wants to know if I ever played any sports. Right! I admit that I only play musical instruments, and joke that somebody has to be in the band at competitions. I think he gets the picture.
My client and I have several hours to kill, so we decide to see if they will accept us in the Business Class Lounge of Lufthansa in Munich. Not only will they accept us, but they also usher us into the First Class Lounge on the strength of my United gold card. I was just reading in the Herald Tribune or USA Today that Frequent Flyer programs are going downhill, but just for today I'm grateful for my United status!
This lounge is amazing. It has a darkened room with reclining lounges for people who want to sleep, a wonderful buffet with a huge selection of beverages, and comfortable plush chairs-all for no charge. I have some "multi-vitamin" juice, strawberries and a banana, and read a newspaper with my client until it is time for him to depart. Then, in danger of falling asleep and missing my flight, I have a double espresso and commence this entry.
It is raining hard in Munich, and my flight is a few minutes late departing, and also arriving at London's Heathrow Airport. This airport is a nightmare, and I hope never to have to connect through here again. I have to change terminals, and several security checks are involved. I run like a madman, and barely make my flight to Chicago.
I collapse into my lovely Business Class seat, and enjoy a nice fillet mignon for dinner as we head across the ocean. During the desert course I take a sleeping pill and conk out for the remainder of the flight. I'm landing in Chicago before I know it. Jonathan is there to greet me at the airport, and he takes home a weary but happy traveler!
