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Three flights (Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, Bangkok to Bahrain, Bahrain to Istanbul), 10,000km , 23 hours later we left the Asia continent and landed in Turkey, the entry door into Europe from the Oriental side of the globe. Some people are absolute terrors on flights; airplane attendants must need a thousand times more patience than the average customer service assistant to deal with tired, cranky and often unnecessarily rude passengers. We flew Gulf Air, and a couple of gentlemen in front of us demanded a second meal, before everyone had been fed. They did not care that if they got a second meal, someone else would miss out on a meal altogether. A French couple next to us got into a screaming argument with the couple behind them because they refused to restore their reclining seats to their original position whilst meals were being served. Then, when they ran out of the fish alternative, they demanded they find some fish as "all they had in Thailand was chicken, we are sick of it". I don't think I could ever be a flight attendant, because instead of being courteous and polite like this Gulf Air air hostess and saying "Sure madam I
will see what I can do", I would have said "Listen up b!#%!, we are 10,000 feet high in the air and it is not an a la carte restaurant, if you prefer I will pull something else out of my ass, heat it up for you and serve it to you on a silver platter".
I think people should just be thankful for what they are getting, it was a 7 hour in-flight journey, far from a jail sentence that some seem to make it out to be.
Anyway, finally arriving in Istanbul at Ataturk International Airport at 4 in the morning, we sleepily made our way to our hostel. As it was too early to check in and there were no beds available, we decided to walk around the city and do some early morning exploring. Armed with a T-shirt and shorts and thongs, I walked out ... and walked right back in. Coming from Malaysia with its 35 degree heat, we were now in 8 degree chilly European 'spring'. With the added wind chill factor, it was SO COLD. We went in search for a cafe that was open early for breakfast, and found a
little hole-in-the-wall establishment which served some kind of puff pastry with fetta cheese for breakfast and some strong, extremely sweet Turkish coffee which was divine.
We walked around the near-empty streets, passing maybe 3 or 4 early morning joggers, and did not realise how lucky we were to experience Istanbul at such a deserted hour until much later in the day, when places like the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque were flooded with scores upon scores of eager tourists clicking away, whilst this morning we had the whole city to ourselves.
Istanbul is extremely pricey. We did however dine at the most ritzy part of town (Itzsleki Cadesi) where a cup of tea was a steep $10 and a (small) glass of house wine was $14. A shared meat and salad platter was $40, and that was cheap. Less pricey sidestreet stalls on the other side of the Bosphorous shore in Uskudar sold delicious fresh fish and lemon salad turkish bread wraps for $7.
Our hostel was in a great location in the Sultanhamet area, right next to all the main sights a tourist spending a few days in Istanbul need see. The Hagia Sophia was
magnificently vacuous, and having being turned from a church into a mosque when the Ottoman Turks took over the city from its Christian roots, is filled with biblical mosaic murals juxtaposed with Islamic paraphranelia. We could not get into the interior of the Blue Mosque as it was Friday afternoon prayers when we visited, but the religious building filled up with thousands of locals as the city stood still for this important weekly affair.
One attraction we were both extremely anticipating was the new Saskrin Mosque in the Uskudar area which has been co-designed by a female architect, the first to have input from a woman in Turkish history. We saw it on the news way back in Thailand and after a tram ride, a ferry trip and a haphazard taxi ride with a non English-speaking driver we arrived at our destination ... only to discover that it was not to be officially opened until the 6th of May. We weren't even allowed to take photographs, adding to our disappointment. The ferry ride along the Bosphorous shore was very pleasant though, and the rugged geography of Istanbul provides a visually ecclectic skyline full of bright garish coloured rooftops mixed
with lots of off-beige facades. Modern tall skyscrapers stand proud against modest yet brilliant mosques from the Ottoman stronghold and also still-intact churches from the time when the city was known as Constantinopole. Much of the older parts of Istanbul have managed to keep their cobblestone streets intact, and this adds to the magic of the city which is really very charming, despite the madness and sheer volumes of pedestrian activity and the copious amounts of tourist-hassling. We were very disappointed we only had three days in this part of the world.
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Elise
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Wow Istanbul sounds incredible! Im totally jealous of the coffee factor....mmmm coffee! =)