On to Istanbul

After a great visit in Georgia, it was time for the next phase of our trip – Istanbul! The Tbilisi airport has you go through security right at the front door (although if you set off the metal detector there apparently it’s OK), and again right at the gate – each gate has its own metal detector and xray machine. And once you’re through them, you have to stay until the flight boards. Fortunately, there was a little play area in the gate’s security area.

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It was a nice flight, and the food was actually good (and no extra charge), in particular the potato salad and smoked salmon. After we arrived at the airport, we acquired some Turkish Lira from an ATM and got a taxi. It was a little bit of a tense moment when we discovered that the address we had for our rental apartment was not correct (there’s a mosque there), but the cab driver called our local contact and worked it out. We had a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant and retired for the night.

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Other news: Eero lost his loose tooth in Tbilisi this morning! He’s putting it under his pillow tonight and is hoping he gets a one-lira coin for it from the Turkish tooth fairy.

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