Time to head back to Beijing.
Since I didn’t want to miss to many lectures for this trip to Xinjiang, I chose to fly back on Tuesday so that I won’t miss the lecture on Wednesday.
During planning, one major reason, apart from the scenery and appropriate distance (by train) from Urumqi, that I chose to spend two days at Zhangye(张掖) (rather than Dunhuang(敦煌)) before heading back was the cheap flight from Zhangye to Lanzhou(兰州) at 120CNY, which would be the cheapest air ticket I’ve ever purchased.
We arrived in Zhangye relatively early from the half-day trip to Ma-Ti Temple, so after lunch I had got plenty of time to make my way to the airport for the 1635 departure. By the tour guide to Ma-Ti Temple, Zhangye Airport had cancelled it’s passenger shuttle bus, which left a three-times daily "employee" shuttle bus that didn't fit my schedule. So under her advice I spent 22CNY for a shared ride on the Didi app to Airport.
By the way, compared with Datong(大同) Airport that I've been to earlier this year, with (I guess) similar passenger volume, Datong Airport was able to provide passenger shuttle bus based on arrival and departure times of its flights. (But if one consider Datong as a city, Zhangye was a county in every aspect but name, so no surprise.)
Zhangye Airport Avenue Traffic was sparse on this airport avenue, with golden leaves lining its side.
Since we arrived at our Airbnb host very late last night this morning, we also got up very late. We left our host at 1045, for which, my friend comforted me as “standard college student time”.
As expected, CS department of Cornell University basically left all the weekends in the summer program to our own discretion (expect for the first weekend's field trip to Niagara Falls, which was nice since normally one don't easily get from Ithaca to Niagara Falls without a car). Since Ithaca's so rurally located, the only city that attracted us was the Big Apple.
For the whole month at Ithaca, I have been looking for local attractions that’s worth a visit. Since Ithaca (and upper New York in general) is famous for its waterfalls, and Buttermilk Falls State Park was conveniently located just south of Ithaca town, with public transport access, I decided to give it a try.
Also, since we had an early session end on August 5th, so that’s the day.
This post follows the previous one on Qatar Airways flight 246.
Midnight seemed to be a higher peak for transits at Doha Airport than early morning, as we waited longer at transit screening this time.
Also, compared to the invigorating bustle of the airport morning we witnessed on our outbound flight, this time the whole airport seemed quieter, even somewhat gloomy to me. Thank God there were people for overnight flights to keep the whole building from degrading into a ghost town.
Time to head back home.
It seemed that everything was expedited for the last day, I finished my tour of Eyup and Golden Horn ahead of schedule, my parents finished their visit of Grand Bazaar ahead of schedule, then all the gift shopping and currency exchange was done without a hitch.
So the result was that, we arrived at the airport four hours before our scheduled departure.
Last day in Istanbul and in Turkey.
As a result of yesterday's missing ferry, the plan of the day was to first visit Eyüp, then take the ferry back to Eminönü as a tour of the Golden Horn. After that, it's Sultan Ahmet Mosque that we failed to visit during the previous days due to its prayer time, and finally make our way to the airport.
Third day in Istanbul.
The plan of the day was to visit Dolmabahçe Palace on Bosphorus Strait, then wander around the old city of Istanbul for the attractions that were left behind in the first day.
August 30th, second day in Istanbul and Victory Day in Turkey.
The plan of the day was to take a tour along Bosphorus Strait. Since we’ve got plenty of time in Istanbul and there’s no need for rushing, we decided to take the full/long Bosphorus tour, which goes all the way to Anadolu Kavağı with the opportunity to seeing Black Sea in the distance.
But before that, we needed to walk to the docks of Eminönü, passing a few attractions along the way. The first stop was Istanbul University.
