Category Travel
The Shopping Trip
I try not to have preconceptions, but this is not what I expected. When I think of the Middle East I think of traditional markets, like Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. Not an upscale shopping mall that would not seem out of place anywhere in North America. Okay, I have heard that they have places like that […]
Waiting For A Plane XV – Security at Ataturk
Airports can be dehumanizing, and probably nothing in an airport is more dehumanizing than the security screening process. Empty your pockets. Take off your belt, your watch, and your shoes. Put everything on a conveyor belt to be fed into the x-ray machine. While that is happening step through this arch. It buzzed? Get patted […]
Lorne’s Law
I vaguely remember studying something called Ohm’s Law when I was a secondary student. I have completely forgotten what it is. Something to do with physics and electricity perhaps. I suppose I could look it up, but I really have no reason to refresh my memory, so I won’t. You can feel free to check […]
Waiting For A Plane XIV – Early Morning In Erbil
It seems no two airport experiences are alike, even at the same airport. The last time I passed through Iraq’s Erbil International Airport my bottle of water breezed right through security. Not this time. I had to drink it before proceeding any further. The rules were posted, but last time they weren’t enforcing them. This […]
Waiting For A Plane XIII – Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
On a Friday evening in November the place is almost deserted. This is nothing like the summer bustle I have seen before. I guess no-one travels this far from summer or maybe I should say this close to Christmas. There are 25 flights on the departures board. Ours is the last to leave. And then […]
Unreal
In North America the ongoing struggle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria is something for the nightly news. It is far away and doesn’t impact us personally. Unless you travel there, in which case it becomes very real. I was given the opportunity to visit a refugee camp in northern Iraq, Yazidi people pushed out […]
Design Flaw
I am the first to admit I am lazy, though I would prefer to describe myself as an efficient or creative worker. It is not that I don’t like hard work (well, I don’t really); it is more that I believe we are all better served by the conservation of energy. Which means I hated […]
Refugees – Cold Hard Facts
He speaks with the authority of someone who has been there. I didn’t think to ask if I could quote him, so I won’t give his name. He’s a relief worker in the middle east. We were having dinner, and the discussion turned to the refugee crisis in Iraq and Syria, not a […]
Waiting For A Plane XII – What Time Is It?
I have rarely been more confused. I spent almost half a day uncertain what time it was. The Internet let me down, which just goes to show you can’t always trust what you see online. As the plane taxied to the gate upon our arrival at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport the pilot made the routine […]
Waiting For A Plane XI – Between Flights at Ataturk
I rarely fly, but these days when I do it seems like I’m always at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport waiting for a connecting flight. The wait seems like forever. As with most airports, there’s not much to do at Ataturk except shop, and even that gets pretty boring. There’s only so much Turkish Delight a person […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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