Homeward Bound

My time in Turkey is over and I am on my way home to Boston now. I had an amazing time in Istanbul seeing the sites and experiencing the culture: a special thanks to Serin, Yigit, Will, and Jessica for making the trip all the better.

My flight from Istanbul to Amsterdam was at 5:25 am, meaning that I had to take a cab from Serin's at 2:30 am to make it on-time. Luckily, Yigit had to pick up his family at the airport at 11:30 pm, so I caught an early/free ride then. The downside to this was that I could not check into my flight and had to wait by the check-in counter for 4 hours until KLM Airlines was ready to let me through.

I had not gotten much sleep the night before so I began to doze off around midnight. Of course, my phone had died so I had no alarm and I was nervous to fall asleep for fear of missing my flight. I risked it. I passed out on top of my luggage in front of the check-in counter like one of those crazy people who camps out at Best Buy for a big sale... I woke up every hour in a thrill of panic, afraid that I had missed my check-in until 3:30 am when the check-in finally started. Thank God. I have never been so happy to be on an airplane in my life. I put on my sleeping mask and was out in no time, waking up only when my plane touched down in Amsterdam.

Initially I had planned to leave the airport and go into the city for a while since my layover was 8 hours long, but upon my arrival I knew that would be nearly impossible. The threat level had been raised (shocker) and security was taking 2-3 hours to get back into the airport...plus I would have to allow an hour to clear customs and get into the city. It was not worth it.

Condemned to the airport, I decided that I would get Starbucks and some lunch and read/do homework. And thus my journey though Amsterdam International Airport begins...

Everywhere has Starbucks, right? Wrong. The one corner of the earth that apparently does NOT have it is inside security of Amsterdam International. I scoured the entire airport (keep in mind that it is huge) and could not find a single one! My mind was so set on a venti iced coffee that I legitimately began to freak out. Where the HELL was it?! After 2 hours of frantic searching I began to act like a Heroin addict in need of a fix. I kid you not, I was jonesing for coffee...my hands were shaking and sweat was dripping from my face.

Fuck it! I was going to have to settle for a McDonalds Iced Coffee instead. After waiting impatiently in line for 10 minutes at McDonalds, I finally went up to order, "Hi, could I please have a large iced coffee? No sugar, just a touch of cream."

The man at the counter looked perplexed. Maybe he did not speak English? Wait, he did. In perfect English he responded, "Sorry, Sir, we do not carry coffee here. What else may I get you?" Um, I don't know...a gun so I can blow my head off!!!!!!!

I quickly told him I did not want anything and I asked him where the Starbucks in the airport was. He did not know.

Devastation. Complete and utter devastation.

As I sat down by my gate to weep, a young, Dutch woman came to survey me on the airport. She asked me about how I felt about the airport and the ease of getting around it. I am sure you can imagine my response. I told her that this cannot possibly be considered a real airport, let alone place in the world, since it does not have Starbucks.

"Oh," she said in accented English, "But there is one. In lounge 1 outside security."

I was up in a flash, shoving patrons out of my way as I raced toward the signs indicating Lounge 1. It was on the other side of security. I could see the green letters beckoning me...tears of joy filled my eyes as I approached a kind, old saint to ask how the fuck I should get there.

"Please, sir, I just need a Starbucks!" He told me I would have to go through and re-check in. Nothing could stop me now. I did it. After running though security like a crazed terrorist, I approached the Starbucks counter! "Venti Iced Coffee, please!"

After 5 minutes of describing to the baristas that I did not want an iced Americano, but an iced coffee, I had my drink in hand. The hour I waited to get through passport check was worth it as I sipped my ambrosia.


Suddenly, I was on the plane with a whole row to myself. I finished my book, watched Slumdog Millionaire and Twilight, and landed in Boston. It was such an enjoyable flight...but I still shudder to think what would happen if I did not get that venti coffee...the plane surely would have gone down.