3.15 p.m., Orio al Serio, Bergamo.
It’s off again, this time to Doha.
The plan is to fly from Bergamo at 16.50, arriving in Istanbul at 20.25. A stopover of 2h 20 min and then departure for Doha at 22.45.
It all seems smooth, organised, but that stopover with only 2h 20 min worries me a little. Especially since the airline’s website only lets me check in for the first of the two flights. I don’t want to arrive in Istanbul and have to leave to check in again. So I decide (fortunately) to go to the airport much earlier than necessary, so as to try to sort things out before I leave. Fortunately, after standing in a short queue at the check in desk, the gentleman also sorts out my second flight. I therefore have the boarding pass for the two flights, now I can relax. But no!!! 😵 Within an hour a nice delayed flight message appears on the display.
There goes the anxiety again. After various changes at the end the flight leaves with 1h 40 delay, the time for the stopover is so drastically reduced to 40 minutes 🥲.
Throughout the flight I am so nervous, I have no desire to waste time in Istanbul for an obligatory stop!
Fortunately, I don’t know how I manage to fall asleep. When I wake up we are almost there and I feel a little calmer (almost resigned).
The plane touches down, but instead of going close to the gate wall it heads in the opposite direction. Disaster!!! Disembarkation will be by bus! I will lose a lot of time! 😵
And in fact from the 40 min I had I have 20 min left by the time I enter the airport. I shoot towards the stairs and with horror I see that to get to the other gate I have to go through passport control. I will never make it!!! 😱
I see a guy with a uniform next to the stairs, taken by desperation I decide to talk to him. I explain the situation to him and he replies ‘I’ll help you’. He lets all the passengers pass and as soon as there is no one there he opens a back door and tells me to follow him. He makes me go through a maze of staff corridors until I get exactly behind the gate, and out to the ticket control. He practically made me skip the document control and all the various passenger corridors, in 5 min I was already on the plane!!! Thank you very much stranger!
Finally I can relax, sitting next to a Finn and a Qatari. I try to sleep, I have no strength left….