Once the trip came to an end, I'm not going to lie, I was upset. The thought of being able to come home to my family and friends however, put a smile on my face. At this point, what lay between me and home were 2 layovers, the first and the longest one in Istanbul, Turkey. I will admit, it was not time efficient to book my flights through Turkish airlines for the UA in Croatia and Italy trip, but it was cheaper. What I did not know about the Istanbul Airport was that you only get one hour of free wifi.
On my way to Dubrovnik, Croatia, I did not need wifi in the Istanbul Airport because I was being picked up by a friend of my professor, then would be in a hotel that night. On the way back, I had a 6 hour layover in Istanbul. The way I pass time in airports is watching Netflix, texting or calling friends and family, or eating food. Since I was in Istanbul overnight, the food court was closed. My thought process behind the 1 hour of free wifi was that you could renew it, so my first hour at the airport I used the wifi kiosk to text my friend that I made on the trip, they had made it home before me.
After my wifi was used up, I scan my passport at the kiosk to renew, as I hoped anyway. The screen said I was unable to do so, and instead I would have to pay for wifi for 2 hours or 24 hours. I chose the 2 hour option to save money. When I sat down to use my code to activate the wifi on my phone, it would not work, it was still stuck on the fact that I used my free hour of wifi and would not refresh. Thank goodness the wifi worked on my laptop though! Even though I could not text or call my friends and family, I was able to watch Netflix and email my parents about the situation on my laptop. What I learned from this experience is that no matter how far along from the beginning to end you are on your trip, you are going to need patience. Also, here is another tip, bring more money (more so debit or credit card than cash) than you think you will need. I spent 9.5 euros on 2 hours of wifi, but there may be more surprise expenses elsewhere with different items on your journey.