Istanbul/Ethiopia/Azerbaijan Day 12

March 7th, 2016

A 6am wake up turned into 5:45 but 6:15 after emailing. I rushed but had little to do and was out the door at 6:35.

It was raining but the light traffic made for an easy drive into the city, by Baku standards. I used the info that my mother, the front desk guy came up with and an AZ map app that only allows pins. I had to figure out the in between. I did well until the just past the round a bouts at the Old Town. I made a wrong turn here and ended up going the wrong way on a one way. A cop stopped me, i explained and he stopped traffic so I could turn around and get my bearings. That was nice. One of only two nice people that I'd met (Raphael was the other).

Art always makes me smile so let's take a moment to enjoy and then we'll get back to the story.

From here actually found the car rental - Whoohoo! I paid in cash and had him sign off on the car. We headed to the airport, Traffic was light and we made it there by 7:40am. Just before the airport as I did a passport check - I didn't have it, $&@?! It was never returned by the hotel. I had to go back and quickly. I didn't even know if this was possible.

The car rental guy wanted to drop me off to figure this out with a taxi. He kept saying that his job was to get me to the airport and he had, I kept after him and when he realized I had no money and they wouldn't take credit cards, he decided to help me. He raced...insanely fast back through Baku traffic into and then around the coast. Some stop and go traffic really concerned me. We arrived at 8:15. He has called ahead and they had it ready. I scolded the desk clerk and back in the car for the return. Now it was rush hour. He kept telling me they as long as I made it by 9:00, I'd be ok. I was very skeptical. He did have me there by 8:40.

Security screen one, and then to checkin. There was some issue with my ticketing by Turkish Air the Istanbul to Boston flight. It took three people and 20 minutes to solve that. Now security check 2. I waited in the long line and heard the flight called. I asked for assistance and told the guy that my flight was boarding. He let me through and a quick check and I was running to the gate. I was the last person boarding,

A few minutes later, the attendant came to me and asked me to follow her. A security guy with several others asked for my passport and to follow,them. They had an issue with my checked bag.

This was not happening. :-( Let's just skip to the fact that I had protein powder in my bag that they determined was suspicious, blah, blah, blah.

Let's get outta here! Definitely top 5 worst trips.