Schipol and Ataturk

Gilly is sitting on the floor in Schipol Airport.

Fort the first day of a trip, is there anything better than spending hours after hours in some airports?

Technically, I spent quite some time in PET in Montréal, waiting for KLM flight to take off to the Netherlands. There, a three hours stopover awaited.

I knew Schipol for spending a short time there on my way to South Africa. But this time, I had to wait longer. And I can't say I appreciated it that much.

Of course, I applaud the fast passport control, if you consider staying in Europe. But for the rest...

First, the wi-fi, free for two 30 minutes sessions, can help kill some time. But when you have three hours to kill, it's not as useful. In the transit section where I was, it was hard to find a free seat to sit. Waiting rooms are locked behind some glass walls, at the gates themselves. So I did like so many others and I sat on the floor.

On the other hand, the marketing thing is pretty good. If you walk around looking for a chair, you might end up sitting in a restaurant, where you'll buy some food...

There is also security, very strict, which you have to go throught at the gate. Problem is they grab you everywhere, more than they need to, even if it is obvious the metal detector rang because you forgot some coins in your pockets.

Nothing to reassure the security guards, or maybe they did know they would be tested, false "terrorists" were standing just in front of me. They had forbidden objects in their luggage but seemed to be working as "mystery clients". They were spotted pretty fast.

Got to Ataturk Airport in Istanbul after that. Got there a little late, and once we walked off the plane, it was total confusion. The queue was very long.

Note that you might need a visa to visit Turkey. You can get it online, on the gouvernement website, or directly at the airport. There, all you need to do is pay the entrance fees to get a sticker. For Canadians, fees are high... 60 $ US.

After, everybody had to wait for passport control. The queue exceeded the gates made for that. It took two hours, after 10 hours on the plane, to get the stamp.

From there, we had to search for our luggage on the conveyor belt because the screens were not showing our flight anymore. By looking around, trying to spot other people from our flight, we finally found them.

After that long day, all that was left to do was to take the metro and the tram to the hostel. Useful and giving you discounts, the Istanbul Card, identical to the Octopus Card in Hong Kong or the Oyster Card in London, is a magnetic card you can charge and use in public transport. Only problem, the vending machine doesn't take the 50 turkish liras bills you get in the ATM's.