The arrivals process was fairly streamlined but it was still midnight by the time we were looking for a taxi.
We almost went to the wrong hotel because Simon got the name wrong, by the time we figured it out the taxi driver was irate as he expected the traffic to be very bad, even at that time of night. He drove like a maniac, but that seems to be the norm around here. The traffic wasn’t as bad as he feared, and he must have forgiven us because he gave us his business card for future trips. It was still around 45 minutes from the new airport which is quite a way out of town.
We are staying at the stupendously expensive 4 Seasons hotel Sultan Ahmet. I was astonished to find when we checked in that breakfast wasn’t included. I was very grumpy as I went off to sleep. I really need to get over it, though, and enjoy everything else about our stay because I never want to stay somewhere this expensive again.
After a bit of a lie in while everyone else had breakfast, we headed out to have a look at the local area. It was mind blowing. We are a stones throw from the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, but both had huge long lines of tourists queuing to go inside. A short distance away were the cisterns, an underground water system, and they also had a queue, although shorter. We will need to see them on another day when we’re better organized. After that we just went for a wander through the shop lined streets to the spice market. Shops selling the same sort of things tend to set up in the same areas, so there was a street of shops selling kids clothes, and another selling Turkish delight and other sweets, for example.
The spice market was great, real sensory overloading.
Next door to the spice market was the New Mosque, only several hundred years old, and this one had no queue to go inside. The dress code to visit was quite strict, no surprise. I was well prepared with a scarf but they had spares and even spare dresses if yours was too skimpy. The building was gorgeous, inside and out. They had a shelf of free Qurans in many languages, and I took one.
We then walked across the river on a bridge that had two levels, the bottom one lined with restaurants. There were many people fishing from the side of the river, and the water looked very clean.
We had lunch at a restaurant recommended to us by Hakan, a Turkish plastic surgeon, who is an old friend of Craigs, one of the couple we’re traveling with. It had a gorgeous view out over the busy waterway.
The meal was basically shared dips and bread, with kebabs to follow, which is a common pattern here. We wandered back through the streets to our hotel for a nap.
We had aperitifs on the roof top bar of the hotel, the cocktails were lovely and we had a fabulous view of the Hagia Sophia. Then Hakan drove us to a restaurant for dinner. This is how I found out that it’s not just the taxi drivers who are crazy. Traffic rules are not even just a suggestion. It’s mayhem and terrifying, but somehow it seems to work.
Another fabulous restaurant with awesome views, and the meal followed the same pattern as lunch, with the addition of raki to drink. Raki is known as lion’s milk. You add water to it and it goes white and cloudy. It’s one of those nasty aniseed flavored drinks – think ouzo or pastis. I usually hate them, but this was OK in tiny sips. The meal was finished off with some chai – the local tea, confusingly not what we know of as chai tea. It’s like our normal black tea. They drink it black in little glass cups. The last time I was in Turkey we drank a lot of apple tea but in fact the locals never drink that. It’s just a gimmick for tourists. We also had some delicious baclava with it. Apparently Turkey and Greece argue about where this first originated, the same way Australia tries pathetically to lay claim to our pavlova.
Another adrenaline filled trip back home and to bed.
Apologies for a long boring post with far too many pictures of me. Will try to do better.