just what i needed, a diversion to ankara

after 40 plus looong hours

of ubers, airports, confusing sweaty shuttle buses, limping painfully, hotels, buffets, spanish translation, delays and uncomfortably interminable hours in cattle class

i was pleased to overfly anatolia

nearly finalmente fucking there!

later after two failed attempts to land ad isty besty

because of 'weather'

we were diverted (non that kind)

to ankara 

an hour away

to then sit for 3 excruciating hours parked on the tarmac

awaiting news as to when what would happen next

(or as to what on earth was going on)

as we sat there

in the proverbial dark

tempers started to fray

squabbling, bickering, like children

i played with the balinese pribumi

called over translations to victor

(la mayoria sin novedades)

and tried quietly to not go insane

in this simulacrum of a terrible hostage movie

time dragged as if by an exceedingly expensive chinese dragging device

the nightmarish farce continued

with the stewards calling for a 'medical person '

and passengers swarming around the patient

eventually they calmed the anxious masses

by doling out some odd nutty snacks

only for an announcement reminding us all that smoking is not permitted

as somebody had been at it in the loos

civilisations rose and fell

during which a well dressed bloke in the next row starting chatting on his phone

by assiduously eavesdropping i learned that he worked for the hairline

and that it was the only flight diverted from isty 

(the others were all happily atterrando)

because sichuan airlines are only one not to have category 3 capable landing systems!

50 plus hours

door to door

a side trip to ankara?

that was just what i needed!