Tag Archives: Istanbul

May 21 2024
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Early morning flight transfer

Tuesday 21st May 2024, 5.40am (day 4,653)

Istanbul airport, 21/5/24

Since I last changed planes there in 2015, on the way to Kilimanjaro, Istanbul has built a completely new airport about 30 mies out of the city which is now the second-busiest airport in Europe after Heathrow. It did seem to me that you could catch a plane from there to just about anywhere, certainly in Europe, Africa and Asia — a landmass of which it occupies a very strategic point, and always has done.

I was there early, left early, but so did a lot other people — this moment of solitary contemplation was not characteristic of the whole. This becomes only the second shot in 4,652 days to be taken between 5 and 6am — the other also being in an airport, Manchester’s, while on my way to Moscow in January 2017.

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Aug 07 2015
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Daily Post, Urban scene

View from Istanbul airport

Saturday 25th July 2015, 8.00pm (day 1,430)

Minarets at sunset, 25/7/15

We flew to Tanzania on Turkish Airlines so changed planes in Istanbul, allowing this city to get onto the blog a second time following my trip to Beirut two years ago. Who knows, one day I might even leave the airport here — it’s a city I’ve never properly visited. This was taken from the plane as we taxied to the second take-off of the day.

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Aug 21 2013
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

The Albanian boxing team

Sunday 18th August 2013, 5.50pm (day 724)

Albanian boxing team, 18/8/13

Find pleasures in airports where one can. I like people-watching (follow this blog and that’s obvious), I like the way you can get strange juxtapositions in the rush and multiple destinations of airport travellers. This was taken in Istanbul airport, waiting for my second flight.

I quite like Albania, for three reasons: 1) I did go there just for a day once (day trip from Corfu) and had a thoroughly good day, surrounded by nice people 2) they have one of the world’s coolest flags 3) the memory of a very nice…. ah, but that’s another story.

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