Extreme Sleep Deprivation Part II

So I may not have been tired on my way through Manas this time around, but I started off on the wrong foot to continue my journey in the same manner when I got to the Bishkek commercial airport at 5 AM having gotten no sleep whatsoever.

The whole day was a textbook description of experiencing reverse-culture shock. I was constantly barraged by the extreme cleanliness of the Istanbul airport and the restaurant attached to the hotel I stayed in in Germany. Did you know the Istanbul airport is full of nothing but women? It's true! Because I was used to there being practically no women downrange it really seemed like they were everywhere I looked (and this continues to be the case as I write this while I am currently visiting Israel). Anyway with a relatively long layover in Istanbul, and a shuttle from Frankfurt to Sandhofen, just north of Mannheim, I was very ready to pass out and did.

Being back in Sanhofen was also very strange, but in a way unrelated to the reverse-culture shock. Firstly, CTC is no longer storing people in the Weber, it's all about the Adler hotel, now. There are good things and bad related to the change, anyway it was only for one night. Also, being in the same place first in summer, and then again seven months later was interesting to see. 

After my out-processing in Coleman Barracks, which consisted basically of my filling out some forms and giving my opinions on how the program can be improved, I was on my way again back to the Frankfurt airport. Hearing Israeli's speaking Hebrew on their way back from a trip to Italy in the Rome airport (which coincidentally was also full of women) was like music to my ears.

Alitalia is very concerned over the people nearing their 40s who still play their original gameboys.

By the time I got to the little hotel near the beach in Tel Aviv that I was staying in it was 5 am again, and I had a hard time sleeping. By Saturday night, I had gone since Wednesday morning with nothing more than 10 hours of sleep total...

It's good to be back, civilization.

Extreme Sleep-Deprivation

Monday morning we left the hotel for the Frankfurt airport. Me Devin and Becca all arrived to Mannheim the same weekend and left the same day. We first flew to Istanbul where we had a six hour layover. This is not a slight against Turkey - just a commentary on social norms and how they vary between cultures - but Turkey and the central asian countries I don't think have mastered the art of personal hygiene as we know it in the Western World.

I do most of my luggage shopping at the Samsonite store in the Istanbul airport.

Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines has the best airline food I've ever eaten! We had two meals one on the way to Istanbul, and another between Istanbul and Bishkek. We got to Bishkek Tuesday morning, and followed our instructions to NOT USE OUR PASSPORTS but instead call from the specially designated phone a certain number for NATO people to come pick us up. Which we did, and then they did. I was under the impression that Manas NATO base was a ways away from Bishkek airport when in fact - it IS Bishkek airport in large part.

The entrance to the base is off of the tarmac of the airport. In the base are lots of tents and a big supply room and some things there for solders' welfare. Everything you'd expect of a transient base (one that's meant for large numbers of people going this way or that). It felt like Casablanca there. There's the "terminal" building where people waiting for "Space A" (A is for Available) on a flight and all there is to do is wait. After already having been traveling for 24 hours, the following 12 or so weren't a blast trying to stay awake.

My two travel companions left on an earlier flight in the day, and so I was struggling to stay awake by myself for most of the day. Not that exact times would matter to you, but I'm not able to share the times of the flights out of Manas because the information is usable by enemies and could compromise the safety of the flights. Interesting stuff, huh?

The giant waiting room once you've found space-a on a flight has lots of benches and a giant projector screen on which they show movies for the 3 hour waiting period before the flight heads out. They were showing Bad Boys for Becca and Devin's flight (I waited with them), and The Green Mile for my flight.

Finally we were called to the flight. We were bused out to the airstrip where I saw the C-17 Globemaster for the first time. I don't know what I was envisioning before that point, but I wasn't expecting to see this:

A C-17 Globemaster

We crammed ourselves into the cargo area via the loading ramp just as these soldiers are cramming this helicopter into a similar cargo area.

Oh no big deal - just putting this HELICOPTER inside that PLANE!

We weren't allowed to take pictures of our own, but this is what it looked like inside the plane (with a few less soldiers than this)

I was in one of the side seats facing in, basically right where the guy all the way on the left is sitting.

By this time I was in and out of sleep and waking up with pains in my neck. We touched down about 3 or so hours later in Kandahar.

I made it!