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Published: April 10th 2007
View from my room
this is the view of the Hagia Sophia from my room at the Four Seasons The flight to Istanbul could have been better. I fell sleep before we even took off from JFK, but then woke up during the actual take-off. About an hour or so later they woke me up for dinner, which I'm glad they did, and from then until breakfast about 6 or 7 hours later, I was trying to sleep and not having the best luck at it. My right leg kept falling asleep and it was driving me nuts. I couldn't quite get comfortable. The flight was half full, and my original seat was 25G, an aisle seat in the 4-seat middle section. The only other guy in the row with me moved to a window seat, so I could have had 4 seats to myself to lay down. At the time though, I thought a window seat would be better so that I could lean against the wall, but boy was I wrong. I regretted the move for the rest of the flight. About 3 hours into the flight when every single 4-seat middle row had just one person laying down fully horizontal, sleeping soundly, I was already thinking about the flight home and how I won't make the
Four Seasons Istanbul Courtyard
not the best shot of the courtyard, but oh well. same mistake twice. We landed a little after noon and after going through immigration and getting our luggage, we met up with our guide and went straight to the hotel. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to stay at the Four Seasons Istanbul, which people are saying is one of the top 5 hotels in the world right now, but it makes me feel really odd in a way. I'm just the videographer, I shouldn't be treated like I'm royalty, right? But oh well, I'm taking advantage of it. My room has two TVs, a huge bathroom with a separate bath and shower, and last night was one of the best nights of sleep I've had in a while. My one disappointment is that the internet connection in the room is $28 a day, while the wireless in the lobby is free. Why charge me in my room??? After settling into the room a little bit, we walked over to the Blue Mosque to shoot a little bit. It is pretty impressive. You can go inside as long as you take off your shoes, and I was able to shoot tons of video, and it wasn't like they gave
hotel room
obligatory hotel room shot #1 us special treatment in that regard. Everybody had cameras and camcorders. We did get to go up to the second level to shoot from there, which was nice. After the Blue Mosque, we walked over to a restaurant nearby called The Pudding Shop, which was a starting point in the '70s for Europeans and Americans heading East into Asia on road trips. It was pretty good, and I was hungry. Had some eggplant and roast beef. Then we went back to the hotel, and met up again at 7pm to go shoot sunset shots of the Blue Mosque. We got some stuff, but there was no real sunset, but I think the stuff at night should be pretty nice. Went back to the hotel, took a bath, and went to bed by 10.
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Lori
non-member comment
Turkey with stuffin'
Joel, good to see you're putting on the feed bag again. I'd be willing to eat the roastbeef, but not eggplant!! I'm glad you're not being spoiled by the royal treatment and staying the same sweet and simple boy we've always known and loved. I'll be waiting by my computer for your next update.