Monday
Dear Elsie
Today was the day we woke up in Istanbul! Our arrival last night went off as well as we could have hoped. We landed at 7.15pm, local time, taxied for half an hour before coming to a stop outside the airport terminal building. Istanbul airport is enormous. We walked for miles to passport control which went quite quickly. Our luggage took us a few minutes longer, so from landing to the appointed airport transfer meeting point was just over an hour. We were shepherded to an underground parking garage where a large car with a smiling Turkish driver soon appeared. We were the only passengers. Off we went with Mike checking his cell phone map and watching our progress. Eventually, we encountered a humungous amount of traffic. Apparently there was a big soccer match on and the stadium was emptying. It took us more than an hour to arrive at the hotel – we arrived at about 9.45pm.
After a good night sleep, I did some early work on spotty internet and then we went for a walk to find 1. An ATM (tick), 2. a laundry (tick) & 3. Breakfast. After drawing money & identifying the laundry, we walked down to the coast. This is the Bosphorus River. There is no barrier along the water’s edge. I wonder how many have fallen in.
We found a breakfast place and bravely ordered the Turkish breakfast special…it was all very tasty, just not our traditional fare
The cappuccino was amazing.
We came back to the hotel because I had a work meeting. While I was at that, Mike took the washing to the laundry. When he got back, I finished up and we set off to explore the sights and sounds of Istanbul. It is a loud, busy, car-filled, cat filled, tourist filled city where the dominant business people are 20-50 year old male smokers! We went to the Grand bazaar.
It was a crowded and reminded us of Dubai’s Souk with lots of gold, silver, carpets, clothes, porcelain and of course food!
Julian’s favourite….Baklava
Street food.
What was really interesting and noticeable are all the men. There were very few women shopkeepers. The bazaar, even though indoors was a smoking zone.
We came home, had a nap & I’ve now done the blog. Mike has picked up the laundry. We are about to head on out again for dinner.
It’s been a good day. We are getting ideas for when we return after our cruise. Tomorrow night Julian arrives.
Psalm 104:5
He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
It’s not about now – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂