Transit

I had a really bad headache last night - very happy it’s gone this morning.
Will had to get up before me to pack *evil laugh*
It was 5:30 at first alarm. Disgusting.
Went over to reception next door and handed in our key.
I am very proud of us. We got the tram instead of a taxi to the airport. Normally dislike this option because so many more things can go wrong - such as the trains not running like in Paris.
But this decision, which worked brilliantly, saved us 32€ so YAY.
Only 1.5€ each.
Took about 30 minutes. Lucky I did research last night and knew it was an underground tram or I wold have been frantically searching the streets.
Very straight forward otherwise.

Airport empty. French really not keen on work.
You could only check in at the counter 2 hours before check in. Why say you must be there with 3 hours spare then?
We got a juice and croissant at the only shop and checked in on the machines instead.
We think we got an exit row 👀👀
Wouldn’t that be good.
We didn’t get bag tags so have to go to the desk later anyway.

Our whole plane is a Korean tour group. They have to take up at least 80% of seats. A gazillion of them.
They are early too and all just waiting In line putting pressure on the workers I like it haha. We get to at least skip that line because we are checked in and go straight to bag drop line.

Check in was so efficient! I had to show her our vaccine certificates and visas for Baku (I’m glad she checked our documents - I’d rather be stuck here than there) and she gave us new boarding passes.

TSA took my kindle and Wills bag.
My kindle passed all tests but Will had honey in his bag. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ probably a weird consistency on the X-ray machine.
It got binned.

I feel dizzy so we sat.
We have gone through another custom check cause we are leaving the EU and we got another stamp 🕺🏻

I may have bought another magnet….
It was just so perfect! 😅😂 It’s a racing helmet with the casino and palace on the visor.

Have I mention I think I have a skin cancer on my head? Will tells me I’m an idiot daily but this pimple started on the trip to the Grand Canyon cause I remember talking to Helen about it and thinking it was good I didn’t have it for the wedding.
But it hasn’t gone away and hurts when I touch it. It’s been a month.
Will cancer was like this 👀
We shall seeeee.

Boarded. We are in the exit row yewww. Of all the people on the plane I can confirm I am the person least likely to be of assistance in an emergency landing. Not because I’m weak and can’t open the door but because I’d be mid panic attack.
Well actually maybe not. If we landed and I was still alive I’d be in a great mood.
The falling out of the sky part. Not good not good.
It was a good flight. Had a nap. Got fed ok food. And all in all went quite quick.

We didn’t need a visa for turkey which took me months to figure out because they have a regular visa and a transfer visa and the wording is not clear at all.
Transfer visa sounded like something we might need as we are transferring through…
I was 99% sure I had understood properly and I had. 🕺🏻
Didn’t even need to rescan bags. Just had to show someone our next boarding pass.
A transfer visa is for if you want to exit the airport for a bit If you have a long layover.

Airport is huge.
We were gate B which was a 19 minute walk to the gate. I have no memory of Istanbul airport from last time but very impressed this time.
I have decided I am getting some Turkish delight when we come back in a couple of days time. It’s everywhere in the airport and I LOVEEEEEEEE.
We had Popeyes for lunch which I didn’t like. Thats strike 2/2 for Popeyes. Edible but hardly a standard to be a massive chain.
They accepted euro cash but pretty sure we overpaid. Would have had to pay a conversion with wise anyway as I hadn’t preloaded any Lira.
On our 2km walk to our gate we exchanged some Euro for Manat and got ripped off hard core. We exchanged $200 euro and only got 250 Manat.
Current exchange should be 350 manat.
The 100 Manat missing is $87.
No choice though. It wasn’t available to buy in Australia, Wise doesn’t pre load it and we only did enough so we could pay our hostel fee tonight. Will find a better exchange on the streets somewhere tomorrow.

Airport had a toilet for dogs.

This is not an exaggeration. 1 in 5 men has hair plugs in the airport. Apparently Turkey is Europes go to for cheap cosmetic surgery like how we go to Thailand.
I genuinely could not believe the amount of men. And some ladies.

Had to go to a squat toilet. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve used one.
Still not a fan. I don’t mind the process in theory. But ladies don’t have a pointer to direct their wee. Floor is covered. If I didn’t have to stand it I wouldn’t actually mind the squat part haha.
I’m fairness men have a pointer and still do a worse job. I swear they close their eyes and sway.
If you miss clean it up, it’s not hard.

Condoms for sale outside the toilets. What everyone is desperate for in an airport.

Had to do a Covid vaccine and passport check before getting on the plane.

This is the most important piece of information for the day:

A man bought a seat in business class for his cat.

The greatest thing I have ever seen.

It was so calm. A very well travelled cat hahahah.

I’m not sure what native Azerbaijani people look like. Turkish, Russian, Asian? Not a clue. I think I pictured middles eastern and I’ve only decided this because I’m surprised by the amount of blue eyes and blonde hair on our plane.

We did a quick google search before getting on about basic words because English is going to be much harder to come by.

20 month old on the plane escaped its Mum. He went crawling up the isle and like 4 different people tried to grab him before he got returned 😆

With one hour to go the crying children have started.

Dinner was a delicious rosemary pasta.

Landed and got through passport checks very quickly, got our bags and walked to the entrance hall and found our driver with a flimsy, hand drawn bubble letter sign BUT HE WAS THERE SO 🎉.

So Baku is super duper clean.
It was cool to see the skyscrapers all lit up with their flag colours.
We are keen to go exploring tomorrow. We think we are going to go to the carpet museum. I’m already so stressed we don’t have enough time here.
Our driver is a tour guy dude so took his details.
Have been going back and forth with him all evening about a 2 day tour.
I don’t want to do the tour over 2 days. There is one online for half the price.
But I take the gamble it’s going to be extremely rushed and that I won’t understand the guide.
I understand our driver.
It’s 100 euro per day for the both of us. More than reasonable.
But then there is entrance fees.
So I’m very torn and I’m going to sleep on it.
Originally put aside 200AUD for the tour so bit of a difference.

I also felt extremely sick this evening so I’m feeling rushed and overwhelmed. Gonna have a big think.

Our hostel is a bit dodge. Well it’s actually ok but I think a lot of permanent residents. The elevator was so dodgy we went one at a time in case it failed the other could alert someone 😆

COUNTRY 50!!!!!! 🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻Read more