Today I left Calgary and began preparing my mind, body, and soul for an adventure in Afghanistan. If all goes well, we should arrive in Mazar in 36 hours. Our flight will take us from Calgary to Montreal to Instanbul and finally, to Mazar. We have avoided flying to Kabul in order to connect to Mazar. We discovered that Turkish Airlines flies direct to Mazar three times a week!
We arrived at the Istanbul airport as planned and 8 hours later connected to Mazar. The new airport in Istanbul is an architectural masterpiece. There is lots of room compared to the old one which seemed so crowded.
Having avoided going through Kabul, we will land in Mazar and drive two hours north.