Uzbekistan

Day 3 May 15, 2023 Istanbul Turkey to Tashkent Uzbekistan

Well the flight to Istanbul was very uneventful thank goodness. The sunrise view from the plane was gorgeous. Unfortunately we were over the wing so our pictures weren’t all that good. The ladies behind us talked the majority of the trip and the college age girl in front of us kept trying to get comfortable by pushing on the seat. The couple across the aisle also talked most of the time and then the occasional screaming kid. Amazingly the flight landed and parked in time to get to the next flight. Not much time to spare. On the walk between gates we met another Gate One couple. This flight had a minor medical emergency. Not sure what happened but a man was on the floor on the other side of the plane. Several guys helped him up and walked him to the back of the plane. We took a very long walk to passport control. The staff told us any line even though the labels said otherwise. We made it through there in reasonable time. Then we had to wait a long time for our luggage. It must have been on the last wagon. Good news is that it made it. We didn’t see the other couple nor any Gate One signs. We headed out after asking a couple of folks. They let us by pass the luggage X-ray. Now it is outside where the temperature is hot. One more person to ask and then we finally saw the Gate One sign. Turns out the four of us are it for this flight. A twenty minute drive brought us to the hotel. A brand new one. Time for a quick shower and short rest before going to the tour orientation. Turns out this is a discovery tour so there are only nine of us. Four from New Jersey, two from Los Angeles and one from Miami. We all got a small thank you gift. I got a doll and Rob got a very colorful baseball cap. So colorful that he probably will not wear it. Dinner is at 7 in the hotel. We had salad, bread, fish, steamed veggies and potatoes. Not sure what the pastry was that we had for dessert. Also had a little local wine. Quite good.