Oslo>Istanbul

I can only say a few words about Oslo, mostly because my time in Oslo was brief, but mainly:

I'm too poor for Norway.


No seriously, a cheeseburger there is like $18-30, and ain't nobody got time for that.

I flew to Norway to visit a friend who was studying abroad so that we could fly back to Mississippi together, as 42 hours of flying alone sounded like the most miserable experience ever to both of us. Yes, 42 hours of flying and layovers is what one had to endure to get back to Mississippi from Europe the first week of August, 2013, I'm not even kidding.

Our first flight was at 6 PM or so, from Oslo, Norway to Istanbul, Turkey, where we'd land at 11 PM and have a 15 hour layover. We had an uneventful first flight with Turkish Airlines, which is apparently one of the top rated airlines in all of Europe. I can totally see why. Their customer service was great. The in-flight meal and entertainment options were way better than expected.

We landed in Istanbul on time, and decided that we'd leave the airport at 5:30 AM and attempt to see a bit of Istanbul--perhaps a mosque and something called Galata Tower, an overlook where one can see both Europe and Asia. We sat in this cafe all night at the airport, both of us occasionally nodding off to sleep, before finally, at 6 A.M. the metro started running and we left the airport to go see stuff.

Europe & Asia

We had Turkish coffee (and were sufficiently confused about how to drink it) and then saw the tower overlooking Asia and Europe. We were also able to see the Hagia Sophia before returning to the airport.

Airport security was the most intense I've ever experienced in my life. Little did we know, the US had issued a notice advising US citizens NOT to travel on the dates which we were flying home due to increased security threats. We went through at least six passport checks, security lines, pat-downs, and luggage searches. I was sufficiently frightened. 

When we got onto the plane, though, Turkish Airlines had pillows, plankets, socks, slippers, eye masks, ear plugs, toothbrushes, lipbalm, and headphones assembled for each passenger in a cute little packet. My friend and I both decided to try to get some sleep on the 14 hour flight... 6 hours in, we were both wide awake again and decided to play Go-Fish, much to the pleasure (I'm sure) of those sitting around us, since I (being bad at card games), accused my friend of cheating almost constantly. 

We arrived safely in Chicago and hogged a "Family Restroom", to brush our teeth and hair and to generally try to make ourselves look and smell as though we hadn't been traveling for more than 30 hours. We sat down to a traditional American meal: Chili's, before heading to the gate for our final flight. 

Because we were flying American Airlines, our flight to Memphis was delayed by almost 3 hours. Annnndd once we got to Memphis, we found out that American Airlines had left one of our checked bags in Chicago because they "didn't have enough room on the plane". It being 3 AM and my friend and I having traveled for 40+ hours, our conversation with the customer service representative was likely neither pleasant nor coherent. 

Two days later, my bag was finally delivered, but no one should ever have to fly American Airlines. They're terrible. 

I was glad beyond glad to be safe on American soil.