Ready for Home

Oct 15, still. 10:45 PM. Madrid airport. 

Terminal 1 must be the original Madrid airport. But we are heading home. I've succeeded again, at booking the flights from hell. I book entirely backwards, so our flights look like this:

Santiago > Madrid

Madrid > Istanbul 

Istanbul > NYC, JFK

JFK > Honolulu 

Honolulu > Hilo

We left our overnight room in the heart of Santiago at 11 AM, because we needed to get out. The rain was coming down in buckets, so we didn't want to walk around to view the antiquity. Besides, we were REALLY cold. Our combined thought was that the airport would be warmer. And it was. We napped, charged our devices, devoured our 15 minutes of free internet and generally hung out at the Santiago airport. Now, in Madrid, we have a layover of 4 hours and we head out for Istanbul. We are both exhausted. Four hours waiting in Madrid, we are totally ready to be home. We will spend a night in NYC, near the airport.

I can hardly believe that only two days ago, I was walking. The culture shock of Santiago was a bit tough, after so much solitude. But the crowds, shops and loud announcements of the airports is even harder to tolerate. Re-entry is difficult, but I knew it would be. A four hour flight to Istanbul will give me some quiet time to reflect...and hopefully sleep.

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Thursday October 16. Istanbul. 5:25 AM. Seven hour time difference from NYC. 13 hour time difference from home.

Airport security is extremely tight, but very efficient. Our gate for NYC didn't open until one hour before boarding. First is the ticket check. Then comes the passport check and scan. Then the carry on check. Then the pat down. I'm such a suspicious character, so I got the entire treatment, all efficiently and politely carried out. I'm not the only one to book from Madrid to NYC through Istanbul. There are a handful of people on our flight that started from Madrid on our NYC flight.

We have an 11 hour flight ahead of us. The plan is to sleep for at least part of it. Turkish Airlines is top notch, so I'm sure we will be well tended to.

We even have slippers in our assigned seats, so we can take off those trek weary boots. But please tell me...who on earth brings a dog on board?

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9.5 hours into flight.

Yippy dog has been good, until the last half hour. Howling at 40'000 feet. Thank goodness for earplugs. Poor thing is probably suffering. We are well fed and have a toilet. What about the dog? Enough...I'll stop.

Our butts are sore from sitting and our legs are SO unaccustomed to not moving. Hopefully we will be in a hotel room in 3-4 hours. A warm hotel room. With a real bath tub. Best Western has never looked so inviting.

I thought I would use this time heading home as a time for reflection. That will not happen today. I'm too tired. I've slept some on the flight, but as we all know, airplane sleeping is far from restful. I believe my reflections and considerations of walking El Camino de Santiago will come over the next few days and weeks, as I assimilate my lessons learned into my daily life.