(November 15, 2007) - After almost three months of traveling, I returned home today. When I flew around the island before I touched down, it was one of the most beautiful November days in the Caribbean. I had left home Labor Day weekend and traveled through Greece and Italy for most of October. It was one of the best seasons in Athens and Capri.

Last Tuesday I was on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to New York. They must have bought new planes, still Airbus but with a personal entertainment system on every seat with huge plasma touch screens - beats JetBlue big time. This flight is almost 12 hours. For a 36-hour stay in Istanbul, you better try your best to rest before you land in JFK, otherwise the remainder of your day will be completely shot.

After going through "Two and Half Man" and the rest of the TV sitcoms, all popular movies including Oceans 13, I continued playing around with the entertainment menu. I passed the movie called "Kayikci" twice under the 'Turkish Airlines Recommends' option. I haven't seen a Turkish "Yollywood" (Yesilcam) movie since Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam. Nothing else left to watch, so I pressed on "Kayikci" for cheap entertainment.

I was wrong. As a world traveler who enjoys spending time between Bodrum and the Greek Islands, this low-budget Turkish / Greek production made my eyes tear worse than the Oprah scene in Oceans 13. I couldn't find a clip of the movie but this Kayikci theme song summarizes it all for fans of this movie. I understand how Katerina Muchachos, a 35-year-old Greek American actress, who was born in Monterey, California, is very popular with the Turkish public after this movie. I would like to meet her one day. 

I'm desperately searching for a few copies of the Kayikci DVD, which would make a great Christmas gift for many of my dearest friends.

During the same flight, just minutes before they closed the airplane door, a last-minute passanger rushed into the plane, all the way to the empty seat right next to me. As she was placing her belongings in the overhead compartment, she asked if I was part of the big tourist group in the plane. I said no. She wasn't either. I said, I guess you and I are the only two people who don't know each other on the entire plane. She laughed. We made small talk for a half hour or so before we put on our headphones. I asked if her visit to Turkey was business or pleasure. She said both. I asked what she did for a living. She said she was a software engineer working on SOA.

I didn't think about my plane ride much until I arrived in San Francisco to attend the SOA World Conference & Expo this past Monday and Tuesday. The first day of the conference as I walked into the hotel, guess who I saw? My friend who I met on the Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul. What a small world, isn't it? Her company was one of the sponsors of the event.