Istanbul

I somehow made it, everything that had to be done is more less done and left behind in London and now I'm here in Istanbul waiting for my transfer flight to Osaka. On the plane from UK I sat next to an Arabic gentleman who chanted oriental prayers under his breath before departure and read Koran on his iPhone. Than I got to know he works for Al Jazeera in Emirates where his family live but his main job is lecturing media at one of London's universities. I immediately thought it's a good sign for me and that maybe after all I will get accepted at SOAS. Applying for anthropology of media, I guess one can think of meeting a media professor as of a good sign. And just minutes ago it turned out maybe my superstitious hopes weren't entirely groundless as I just got an offer from uni. Now fingers crossed they will comply with my request for a deferral. Not only I don't gave five grand at hand but also it might be difficult for me to turn up at Russell Square campus in October being somewhere in the middle of rural Japan. Well, so far so good, and hopefully it just will stay like that. I'm to tired to be happy about the offer and too tired to worry about the deferral.

All my misery emerged from a stupid, irrational and only-a-blonde-could-have-come-up-with-this-shit idea to pack a bicycle in a box. Maybe it's a good idea if you travel by cab to the airport. By any means it is not a good idea if you travel by bus and by train. And you don't have your personal weight lifter at your service. I had my gorgeous friend Waldek with me and he acted as the weight lifter and without him this all would be just impossible. Unfortunately he's not accompanying me to Osaka, so heaven knows how will I manage, and he's not with me now when I'm dragging the ridiculously uncomfortable panniers from one plane to another. But again, I am to tired to worry and at the same time to ecstatic about actually going to Japan to even care.

I guess it's time to find my gate or something not to repeat the epic fail from couple of years ago when I missed my flight. I missed it despite being at the airport ten hours in advance. So I'll better get going.

Next stop, Japan!