I'm completely skipping a blog post about Istanbul, Turkey. I don't even have the photos uploaded from my camera yet--I simply don't have time. I head to Alaska tomorrow to start packing for a Denali expedition that I'll be guiding for the rest of May.
In the last three weeks I've been to four continents, wandered around six major cities, been the only white person standing in downtown Johannesburg, stood at a bus stop in Chicago trying to remember what city/state/country/continent I was in, blended in with 150 other nationalities in Dubai, shot photos of lions and leopards and elephants in South Africa, and wandered around, nearly lost, drinking freshly squeezed pomegranate juice in Istanbul. It was an amazing trip, but I didn't get to spend enough time in any of the places I visited.
But I have conducted a very official survey of airports and airline service since, in those last three weeks, I've been on 11 flights, through 10 airports on 7 different airlines. Here are the official results:
Best Food: Turkish Airlines
Worst Food: Air Canada or South African Airways
Best in Flight Service: Emirates
Worst in Flight Service: British Airways
Best Airport Service: Air Canada or Alaska Airlines
Worst Airport Service: Turkish Airlines (absolutely horrible)
Best Airport: Seattle, USA
Worst Airport: Heathrow, England (even worse than LAX)
Fastest Immigration: Heathrow, England
Slowest Immigration: Johannesburg, South Africa
Easiest Customs: UAE
Worst Customs: USA
Easiest Airport Check-in: Air Canada
Worst Airport CHeck-in: South African Airways
Easiest Security: Butte, MT
Worst Security: Chicago or Istanbul
Best Airport People Watching: Dubai (pissed off Arabs and Irish)
Most Boring Airport People Watching: Salt Lake City (no need to explain)