{"id":21787,"date":"2018-02-19T16:51:33","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T21:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=21787"},"modified":"2018-02-19T16:51:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T21:51:33","slug":"february-19-2018-i-feel-terrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=21787","title":{"rendered":"February 19, 2018 – I Feel Terrible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long, strange trip across the pond.\u00a0 The opening two hours saw turbulence that made me think on more than one occasion, \u201cHuh\u2026 I wonder if this is how it ends \u2013 plummeting from 40,000 feet to the ground below.\u201d\u00a0 Understandably flight attendants were instructed to keep their sears but that meant any and all services were suspended and I was majorly parched and desperate for a water.\u00a0 Part of this is that the cabin was so dry and oddly warm, that it was as if I were in the Nevada desert.\u00a0 Which technically I was as we parabolically flew across the globe.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m in a window seat, something I don\u2019t normally request so I\u2019m not entirely sure how this happened.\u00a0 One would hope you could lean against it and grab some shuteye.\u00a0 But it makes trying to get a glass of water from the air crew a bit dodgy.\u00a0 Two elderly solo travelers are next to me.\u00a0 I say elderly fully cognizant that I am an old man, achy and prone to needing to get up and stretch.\u00a0 They move with difficulty, as do I.\u00a0 They both have hacking coughs, which I hope not to have.\u00a0 The man on the aisle is Turkish and in a rare instance when we all have gotten up to stretch, he asks me if I need a tour guide.\u00a0 I politely decline telling him I\u2019m not staying in Turkey, just passing through.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t seem to understand and asks if I need a tour guide.\u00a0 I mentally flash on what a tour would be like with him as my guide.\u00a0 It concludes with me waking up in a bathtub filled with ice and a note saying, \u201cat least you still have one kidney left.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m in a dark place.\u00a0 Perhaps it’s due in some small measure to these complimentary eye shades.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had long thought of Turkish Airlines as being a higher end service airline.\u00a0 I was clearly mistaken.\u00a0 The crew were surly.\u00a0 I suppose I shouldn\u2019t complain too much \u2013 this photo is of the last penne pasta dish onboard and I was the one who got it.\u00a0 Too bad it kinda sucked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The breakfast (fast forwading here a bit) was much, much worse:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the tiny plane progresses across the digital globe on my setback screen, we eventually cross into daylight.\u00a0 As I\u2019m stating out the window into the technicolor cloudscape, a gruff flight attendant comes by and tells me that since the sun is coming up I must close my window shade. This window deal just keep getting worse and worse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A window with my allotted view after sunrise.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jammed and wedged into this chair, a square peg in a round hole forced into ever more confusing pretzelized art design of inhuman poses, I try and sleep, figuring that\u2019s my best option for getting through until tomorrow.<\/p>\n

I ran this morning\u2026 or was it yesterday morning?\u00a0 I ran on whatever day I left.\u00a0 My legs feel overextended and rubbery.\u00a0 This chair isn\u2019t helping.\u00a0 I feel, as has often been said, terrible.<\/p>\n

Throughout the flight, the temperature does not improve.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those newer planes that design-wise did away with personal air vents.\u00a0 I strip off my jacket, then my long sleeve shirt to just my t-shirt.\u00a0 I\u2019d strip it off too if I could.\u00a0 It\u2019s an unpleasant cabin experience.<\/p>\n

I watched a movie and then couldn\u2019t bring myself to watch another.\u00a0 In most movies there\u2019s readily available beverages for the characters and I was too envious to watch that.\u00a0 Parched, sweaty, and irritable, trapped in a window seat I never wanted, my bones ache as well.\u00a0 It\u2019s only partly due to this uncomfortable seat.\u00a0 I\u2019ve noticed a creeping chronic ache of late.\u00a0 It\u2019s the years and mileage.\u00a0 They\u2019ve caught up to me. it seems.\u00a0 This all makes me feel ever more like an old man.<\/p>\n

This by the way is what happens when you don’t have an aisle seat on a long-haul flight:<\/p>\n

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***<\/p>\n

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The Istanbul Airport international connecting area is decked out with standard warehouse airport d\u00e9cor.\u00a0 Exposed pipes, digital schedule signs with gate assignments, and uncomfortable chairs.\u00a0 Duty Free shops line the corridors, offering discounts that would be deemed too high as the inflated regular prices on Amazon to warrant a larger percentage off their selling price.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a Cruise Ship Comedian \u2013 I\u2019m blanking on his name \u2013 who has a bit about how Chinese Food in China should just be called \u201cfood.\u201d\u00a0 I thought of him as I passed the free sample displays for Turkish Delights on offer at various kiosks.\u00a0 \u201cHere in Istanbul,\u201d I heard him say, \u201cShouldn\u2019t they just be called \u2018delights?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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I didn\u2019t have any local Turkish currency so couldn\u2019t buy a soda from the vending machines.\u00a0 They wanted 6 Turkish Lira (abbreviated as TRY).\u00a0 The various grab-n-go food court offerings had them priced at 10.5 Turkish Lira.\u00a0 My googlesearch says the vending machine was close to USD$2 and the kiosks were TRYing to charge closer to $3.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t about to pay such an inflated markup penalty for not having local currency.\u00a0 A man\u2019s got to stand on his principles sometimes.\u00a0 And that principle is defined by a bird in the hand sayng, \u201ccheap-cheap-cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was some serious secondary security screenings for ALL passengers going to Tel Aviv.\u00a0 I forgot how much of a hotspot tensions can be, how much violence seems to hang in the air surrounding that area of the world.\u00a0 As is often the case with Middle Eastern services, the split between females patting down females and males patting down men felt a little unnecessary.\u00a0 I guess since it was more of a pat for trace explosives I didn\u2019t feel it aggressively invasive.\u00a0 Just time consuming.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Boarding was almost complete as the last few passengers trickled in, all lugging several large pieces of luggage (they really took the lug to heart I guess).\u00a0 The gruff couple who would sit next to me reminded me all too much of a past I\u2019d like to forget.\u00a0 The husband in particular was a bully who continuously shoved his bag into the overhead and not finding it fit.\u00a0 A gentleman seated underneath one such compartment asked him to be careful because there was a laptop in his bag.\u00a0 \u201cSo what?\u201d the not-so-jolly giant said, as he shoved the bag once more into the compartment, forcing other bags to tumble out.\u00a0 Charming.<\/p>\n

We departed half an hour late which makes my attempt to catch a train and public transport to my AirBNB even more dodgy.\u00a0 Despite that damn bird still being in my hand, I may wind up paying for a cab to get there, not wanting to puzzle out public transport schedules and transfers at 11 o\u2019clock at night.<\/p>\n

The meal was Turkish Airlines Haute Cuisine… by which I mean, almost inedible:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Delays in landing.\u00a0 Delays at immigration.\u00a0 Delays at getting my bag.\u00a0 And delays at hailing a cab using the Uber-ish GETT app… one which quoted me a fare and then charged me three different amounts, plus the cabbie had to call me incurring an international phone call charge of Sprint knows how much.\u00a0 The former requires an email to the customer service folks; the latter requires waiting for the voluminous cell phone bill.<\/p>\n

I guess it wouldn’t be a trip if you didn’t feel like you got screwed by your cab driver.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seriously?\u00a0 A bag fee when I’m coming from the airport?\u00a0 And because he mentioned I could book a return ride to the airport he can charge me for that tidbit?\u00a0 It’s okay, I tell myself.\u00a0 I figured that was his tip.<\/p>\n

I’ve gotten into my airBNB but I think I accidentally let a cat out of the door.\u00a0 That’s not a poorly translated revelation about things.\u00a0 I had a code to get into the atrium\/lobby and as I punched in the code and pushed the door open with my checked bag, this black bolt of lightning flashed past me into the night.\u00a0 I’m pretty sure it was a cat.\u00a0 I tried calling it with the classic “here, kitty kitty!”\u00a0 And I made that clicking sound and that “puss-puss-puss” sound when you try and call a cat.\u00a0 I spent a good two minutes on this before I realized even the best behaved cat wasn’t about to come to my call.\u00a0 Cats, like people, don’t like me.\u00a0 And the feeling is mutual.\u00a0 If the cat wanted to roam free so badly, well, who am I to stop him?\u00a0 I’ve seen both the original and the unfortunate remake of THAT DARN CAT! so, ya know, call it a cinematic tribute BEFORE the Star Wars tour.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I feel a little terrible about it.\u00a0 But honestly, there’s so much wrong at the moment all I want to do is curl up on those bed and await the dawn.\u00a0 I should probably close the blinds.\u00a0 Wouldn’t want an irate Turkish Airlines flight attendant pounding on my door telling me to do it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m going to leave them open.\u00a0 Live dangerously… also with my luck I’d break the damn things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long, strange trip across the pond.\u00a0 The opening two hours saw turbulence that made me think on more than one occasion, \u201cHuh\u2026 I wonder if this is how it ends \u2013 plummeting from 40,000 feet to the ground below.\u201d\u00a0 Understandably flight attendants were instructed to keep their sears but that meant any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}