After a fun day of avgeekery and tourism in Paris, it was time to head home and, as with our flight to Paris earlier in the day, we’d be flying back from Charles De Gaulle to Luton with easyJet. Having had an early start and a full-on day, we were both knackered and so got to the airport around 1820, some 3 hours and 15 minutes before our flight. This gave us plenty of time to get through security and passport control without having to stress, and hopefully some time to relax and grab some food before departure.

Having been back from my Meander to Moldova for about a month, I was getting Wanderlust and so on a random Wednesday in February I headed to London Luton Airport ready to catch a short flight across the English Channel to Paris. Unusually I’d have some company for this extreme day trip, as my dad was joining me for the day, with a plan of seeing both some of the city and ticking off an item from my AvGeek bucket list. We had planned on doing this trip via Eurostar, allowing us both to avoid a late night drive back from Luton, however the cost was extortionate by the time we went to book and so instead, we had a flight to catch, and easyJet were doing the honours from their home airport as we headed to Paris Charles de Gaulle.

My arrival into Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight from Chișinău marked the start of the final leg of my Meander to Moldova trip, with just the flight from Istanbul to Heathrow ahead of me. Turkish Airlines operate a number of daily flights between their Istanbul hub and London’s Heathrow airport using either narrowbody Airbus A321s or a mix of widebody aircraft. Whilst I could have taken a slightly earlier flight and gotten home sooner, I of course had to try out one of Turkish’s widebody aircraft and so booked myself on TK1971 which was advertised as being operated by one of their newest aircraft, an Airbus A350-900.

With my Meander To Moldova having successfully brought me to Moldova and its capital Chișinău, I had enjoyed a couple of days exploring the city but it was now time to head home. With my leisurely journey east from England taking me a week, I needed to head home a bit quicker, however still wanted to make the journey interesting. As such, rather than jump on a direct flight with FlyOne, HiFly or Wizz Air, I had decided to try out Turkish Airlines and fly via Istanbul. Whilst Istanbul was technically in the wrong direction, being in south-eastern Europe meant it was only a small diversion and a great opportunity to check out an airline I’ve wanted to for a while.