Off we go for real now

After only a few hours of sleep it was time to get up again. Breakfast with Irish Salmon and a big cup of coffee should get me going. The weather this morning wasn't quite as marvellous as the days before. Seems like it is time to go now. Today there are a couple of things going on, there is a German-wide Blitzmarathon where police tell you that they are setting up loads of speed cameras (We witnessed this on the way to the airport - only as bystanders of course), Scotland is holding their referendum and Borussia is playing FC Villa Real. I am off the air for the moment with access to the internet. Well, we'll see how things go.

Checking in at the Airport was easy enough, especially since Pegasus Airlines uses the same desks as AerLingus. We tried to keep the tradition alive by having visiting "The Red Baron" pub at the airport, but unfortunately this has seized to exist and we had to go to another place.
A few hugs and kisses to say goodbye to my parents and aunt and uncle before the security check and off I was. This is it now. Point of no return? No there is always a way. Go for it Andreas, see what the world is like.

It still doesn't seem to be that real somehow. I'm not in the mood for holidays yet, somehow. Hopefully that will change as soon as I step off the plane in Dubai. For now my flight was going to bring me to Istanbul. The flight was not very spectacular on Pegasus, which seems to be the Turkish equivalent to Ryanair.

Istanbul was very overcast and the when we broke through the clouds during the approach on Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (the Asian side of Istanbul) airport I saw it was raining. On the other hand I could also see some of the Prince's Islands and couple of ships in the Sea of Marmara.

When I queued up to get re-checked at the transit security check a guy asked me in English if anyone spoke German and I automatically replied with a "yes". A polish woman (who spoke German but not English or Turkish) apparently bought a bottle of Whiskey on the plane but had no receipt for it. I had to tell her now that she was not allowed to bring this bottle through security. She told me she was very upset, which I relayed to the man who told me to talk to her and then I was allowed to skip the queue and get through security quicker.

Once in the depature hall I wandered around a bit. The bag was checked through so I didn't need to wory about that and had 3 hours to kill. I found an Arby's (sandwich shop) which I have not seen for ages and as far as I could remember it was a great tasting sandwich ... but not this one.
Next stop was Dubai and the flight there was really relaxing since I had a whole row (well, seat 11D - F) for myself and could stretch out a bit.

This was quite beneficial since I was going to be arriving in Dubai at 3:30.

Since it was Friday morning in a Muslim country (UAE) the Metro or Buses were not running and I had to resort to a Taxi for 10 €. I booked a hostel "EasyFlats 12" in Bur Dubai, which is the sort of historical part of Dubai and interestingly enough when started walking around to get my directions right the first person who talked to me (aside from the Taxi driver) in this was a prostitute. I wished her good luck with the rest of the night and seeked shelter in an air-conditioned supermarket. It was still 35 degrees at 5 am.

In order to meet up with the guy from the hostel I had to get Wifi which I couldn't find for free anywhere, so I had to buy it from a Hotel (luckily also air-conditioned). I "What's-apped" the guy and he picked me up a couple of minutes later at the hotel. The Hostel that I stayed at was not really a hostel but a couple of flats with loads of beds. No common room, which was a shame since this is the place I imagined I could meet people that also were travelling alone.

Check in was 2pm and I arrived at 6am... so I had to pay 8 USD for the 8 hours difference. I didn't care at this point and had a good couple hours of sleep.