So we woke up around 10 am - the flight is at 5:30 pm and we have to be at the airport 3 hours prior to departure time. We arrived at the airport on time and proceeded to the check-in which we accomplished uneventfully. The terminal was crowded with well-wishers with the usual hugging and crying - the hopeful hujaaj leaving their familiar surroundings and families bound for a strange and distant land.
We bade our farewells and boarded the aircraft - Turkish Airlines airbus. We took off about 30 mins late. Dinner was served shortly - Chicken or Pasta? The flight attendant asked. My enthusiastic sixteen year old inquired "Is the chicken Halal?". The flight attendant responded matter-of-factly, "Huh? - The chicken is from New York!" Since I haven't read anything in the Shari'ah about 'Chicken from New York', I thought it would be safer to go Pasta. Turns out that everything served on Turkish Airlines is halaal - they even insert a little note with the meals saying "Our meals are all Pork free.'
We tried sleeping unsuccessfully - everyone was on a high. There were over 350 hujaaj in our group of which about 150 were on this flight. We were a pretty diverse group - Pakistani, Guyanese, Trinidadian, Palestinian, Egyptian, American, Chinese, Bangladeshi, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Nigerian, Syrian - to name a few.
Several hours later we were served breakfast of omelet and hash browns with coffee.
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