i intentionally worked in an layover in istanbul, because they have a brand new airport that i wanted to see! one of the largest infrastructure projects of all time and currently the largest airport in the world, it is on the european side along the black sea, about an hour north of istanbul. when at full capacity, it will handle 200 million passengers per year, twice as many as the current busiest airport in the world. upon arrival i wanted to explore it, which took about 2.5 hours. i was hoping i might be able to get into an amazing airport lounge while there, but the airport is so new they didn’t have any lounges open yet.
i took a bus to taksim square in downtown istanbul to get a place for the night, and walked around the city a bit. what a place!
