24 Hours of Travel

Here are backpacks, one per person, for 6 weeks of international travel. Traveling light fits our minimalist ethos, but more than that it’s just so convenient to be able to carry all of our stuff on our backs. Will we miss anything? Perhaps in the UK we will wish we had rain jackets or umbrellas, but then we can just buy them there. And leave them there. Because part of this simplicity is enforced – the Icelandic discount airliner WOW (we had never heard of it either) allows only 11lbs per carry-on! It will be close, but we just might make it if we wear all our clothing and stuff everything we can into our pockets. Or we can admit defeat to the stingiest airline ever and pay the fee for a few extra pounds.

We stayed in San Francisco on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning I was up early enough to look up this prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. I knew there would be something in there about travel.

53. For TravelersO God, our heavenly Father, whose glory fills the whole
    creation, and whose presence we find wherever we go: Preserve
    those who travel [in particular _______________]; surround
    them with your loving care; protect them from every danger;
    and bring them in safety to their journey’s end; through
    Jesus Christ our Lord.Amen.

We needed God to surround us with his loving care on our trip. We left the hotel in San Francisco at 6:45am and caught our first flight at 10:00am. We had connections in Seattle and Frankfurt (Note: never travel through Frankfurt, whose ridiculous design required a long shuttle from plane to terminal, a long walk to the next gate, and then another long shuttle from gate to plane). The plan was to sleep as much as possible on the long flight across the Atlantic, then stay awake as much as possible until bedtime in Istanbul. Mostly, we didn’t sleep at all. Except in the Frankfurt airport. Just before landing in Frankfurt two of our kids threw up. Not because they were sick. Just because they were tired. Rebecca and I didn’t feel so great either.

During the ten hour flight from Seattle to Frankfurt I found myself hoping a few times that we had at least passed the five hour mark so we could be halfway done. During those ten hours the kids attempted sleeping, watched Toy Story 3 without sound, and achieved pro level on Plants vs Zombies. I did a little reading at the beginning, but after that it was about the same as the kids. Being so far north, and traveling east, the sun barely went down before rising again during the flight. It reminded me of my summer in Alaska.

The Frankfurt airport gave the kids a place to finally lay down. When we woke up one of them 20 minutes later to take the ridiculously long shuttle bus to the plane, he staggered and mumbled, “I feel so bad.”

When we landed in Istanbul I texted our driver, as the owner of our airbnb apartment had arranged. After no response I called and he said, “I will send my son over to show you where we are.” A man came by with a sign bearing my name, but it was not the driver’s son, and the driver he brought was not the man I had talked to. I was wary, having enough experience with attempted scams and cons to know when suspicion is called for. But when he called driver #1 who confirmed he had arranged it, we went along without any trouble or suspicion. I only wondered why the first driver hadn’t just said someone else would meet us.

We arrived at the apartment in Istanbul around 7:00pm the day after we departed San Francisco. Turkey is 10 hours later than California, so our journey was around 26 hours.

I collapsed into bed at 8:00pm, feeling like I might pass out otherwise. I was awake at 5:00am, and up at 5:45 with our five year old, whose body had been telling him that 4:00am was a good time to get up. The rest of the kids were up before long and acted like they hadn’t just spent 26 hours experiencing the mild torture of sleep deprivation. Thank God. I thought during the flights that arriving at the destination one desires is worth the difficulty. Heaven will be like that.

I will write about our first day or so in Istanbul soon. It’s hard for my writing to keep up with our activity!