This morning I woke at 5 to finish some work and just as I completed it at around 7, I got a call from my father, saying that my siblings were all going to be in Lahore this weekend, why don’t I come too? I looked at tickets, they were very expensive, and then there’s the climate irresponsibility, but but but. Then I thought, my father is not getting any younger and it has been over two year since the four of us were in the same place at the same time. So by 8 I had booked my ticket and at 8 in the evening I was at the airport.
It was not an altogether smooth journey. I decided to take the airport bus, which leaves from Taksim Square, and between entering the metro and arriving at Taksim, a massive storm broke. Istanbul has a very good public transport system but the bits of the system are not always well connected, so the 10 minute walk from the metro to the bus stop was in driving rain – not ideal en route to a six hour flight.
The bus journey itself was very very delayed and there was a most annoying woman speaking in Urdu throughout about how late she was getting and why wasn’t the bus driver doing anything, in bumper to bumper traffic. To his credit the bus driver did do something: first he went up the emergency lane for a bit, then decided to just divert from the designated route to the one that had less traffic, and so got us to the airport in 150 minutes instead of the 210 minutes that the original route would have taken (the usual journey time is a maximum of 90 minutes, more usually 60).
And so arrived at the airport, a little damp but dried after the long journey, thankful that I only had hand luggage (the only way to travel short of private aviation) and the flight is delayed due to, according to the airline, force majeure. Which, since the plane is coming from Beirut, might have been an issue, but it seems on the way. Meanwhile I am sitting in the lounge which we have access to thanks to our unnecessarily expensive credit card so must make full use of it. It’s definitely one of the better airport lounges around, being very spacious and airy, with large windows (that would be better in the day, but still appreciated at night) and, happy Turkish smokers, an outdoor terrace, so I can get rained on at an airport, a novel experience.
As for climate – yes I do feel bad. I fly too much – but not travelling would be worse than death. And I remember when my mother wanted all of us to come to Pakistan to the extent that she sent me a ticket at a time when I was completely broke. We came and on that visit, the day after we all arrived, she had her stroke and then the terrible years of her sickness began – so it was the last time we were there as a family. And this call from my father brought my heart to my mouth. But I’m glad to be going, even as I desperately try to finish my work sitting here.