To Istanbul and afternoon in Istanbul

Sunday was a crazy day. Somehow I just could not finish packing and lacked direction – more like ‘all over the place’ spending most of my time searching for stuff I know I had seen somewhere. 

In the end I was 45 minutes late for my pickup to the airport – luckily the transfer company could accomodate the change. Once checked in and past all the logistics I could have a quick cola and bite at the airport lounge – seeing that I missed lunch and it was too late for the planned coffee pre-check in. Lounge was a first for me, a new perk courtesy of my banking package and a total Godsent under the circumstances.

The journey was not what I would describe as my most comfortable flights ever – for all of my ability to sleep on a flight, I slept precious little on this one. I felt hot, cooped up and uncomfortable – the hours ticked by slowly.

Once in Istanbul I made sure that  I could go to transit area and then return to arrival area to clear passport control and exit to join the tour. After some searching located the primeclass lounge and opted to pay my 40 euros for 4 hours access – turns out with Mastercard its 10 Euro off – bonus. It was a small price to pay for a comfortable leather couch – enough space to curl up for a snooze, coffee, drinks, breakfast and A SHOWER with complimentary toiletries and disposable towel.

I made my way through passport control and eventually found TourIstanbul and left luggage at one end of the arrivals hall – next to a starbucks. Bag was re-packed – daybag for trip and non-essentials left in bigger backpack to be stored  – at 28 TL – not cheap. If I had known that you can store the bag on the bus (they lock it in the bottom luggage compartment) I would have gone that route, but I thought it just stays inside the main passenger area – which is less secure. Lesson learned.

Seventeen of us joined the tour – most of the group from former USSR and the rest were french and one spanish lady with non-existing english skills. She did not read the fine print stating that the tours are in english only. I was the only native English speaker on the tour – quite an interesting experience picking out the few russian words I understand, but somehow we  found a way to communicate and share the fun.

Lunch was very good – chickpea soup  with lemon, flatbread. Fresh mixed salad and lamb kofta (meatballs) with frenchfries and milk and caramel pudding with cinnamon. My random drink turned out to be sour cherry juice and the russians shared a traditional salted yogurt drink, but it wasnt that big a hit. 

After lunch we had free time to visit te Eyup mosque – however this co-incided with 13:00 prayer time. Gave us females the chance to join/witness the females in their prayer area, but even after the main prayers were done and most men left the main prayer hall, there were still some activity, so as a woman I could enter and see from the edge, but could not take any pictures at the risk of causing offence. The ceilings in the courtyard is quite pretty and I could take a few pictures there. Plus there are loads of cats in the area and one of the russian ladies is also a cat fanatic 🙂

Next we drove to the Oldest active Greek Orthodox church and had a look around before visiting an old colourful area and school on a steep hill. From here we picked up the ‘morning’ tour group at the Blue mosque before returning to the airport. We arrived back just before 18:00.

Having to collect my backpack I had to find my way through the maze and retrace my steps back to passport control – another reason not to leave the backpack at the airport. At least this time I knew exactly where to go for the lounge and caught up on lost sleep before having to board at 00:40.

There was quite a lot of people going to Havana – more than I expected. Luckily I had the two seater row to myself and slept quite peacefully for most of this 15 hour flight. But I was really relieved when I looked up and saw land below us – that wide expanse of ocean for so long isnt my cup of tea. Also, for some reason this flight did not have the map tracking feature we are now accustomed to – so you could not really see ‘where we are’, maybe better that way.

We departed late, so our flight landed in Havana 50 minutes later than expected – I kinda felt bad for my taxi waiting for me since 8 am – now already waiting 50 minutes and we havent even done baggage claim or immigration yet.