Turkey Travel-Log(ue) : Day 1

It has been 5 months since my parents and I visited Turkey (or Turkiye, its more poetic Turkish name) for a week-long (or short!) holiday. And worryingly enough, I havent had the happy union of time, energy and inclination to write an honest-to-goodness travelogue - the type that TAKES me back to the place I have just seen. Since the more I dilly-dally, the hazier the memories will become, I have decided to just post the scribblings/logs/notes that I had punched in into my Ipad and make do with that.

So here goes - Day 1 of my Turkey Travel-log(ue)


Istanbul Ataturk International Airport, 10:55 AM local time.

Just claimed my bag from baggage claim - got it within moments. The fact that I stopped for a leisurely bio-and-hair comb-and-refresh lipstick-and-get appalled by my black swan-like red eyes-break BEFORE heading to baggage claim might have had something to do with it. :)

The flight was uneventful, largely because the seat was quite comfortable. The past-by-date Valium I'd popped after takeoff didn't really work, and I slept fitfully for an hour or an hour and a half. The rest of the 8-hour flight was spent watching Harry Potter Part 7-2 and a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory. And yeah, random time was spent at the BEAUTIFUL air hostesses and sympathizing with the mother travelling with her baby a few seats ahead of me….the baby insisted on crying pretty much throughout the journey.

Breakfast was nice-the non-vegetarian version included some sort of a spinach moussaka, tasty mushrooms, a limp-but-tasty bread-and-ham concoction, a brownie and a surprisingly yummy salad- green and black salted olives (the first time I have ever tasted a buttery tasting olive!), sliced tomato and cucumber and 2 kinds of salty-yet-creamy cheese. Washed down with Tropicana orange juice, it hit the spot. :)

Now waiting for Ma and Baba's flight from Doha to land. The only glitch so far has been that I couldn't change the British Pounds that am carrying for Turkish Lire....apparently the notes I had were old. 300 pounds down the drain? Hope not!

And oh yes, this airport does not have wifi. :(

Our room, Lady Diana Hotel, Sultanahmet, Istanbul. 3:00 PM local time

After a looooooong wait at the airport (Ma Baba's flight was delayed by an hour) during which I met up with Jelal (the guy from the local travel agency which had arranged our Istanbul hotel stay and sightseeing) and had a nice get-to-know you chat with him, the parents showed up, looking slightly the worse for wear. We stepped outside the terminal into the dull gray day and cold bracing air. Brrrrrrrr! If this is the weather here, I can see a lot of walks coming up! :)

A half-hour bus ride later (amazingly comfortable Mercedes Benz 12-seater) through a cityscape that looked partly European (gray skies, cold weather, low streetside buildings) and partly Middle Eastern (kebab shops, crowds) we reached our hotel, the Hotel Lady Diana. Tucked away in a quiet nook within walking distance of the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace, the hotel has tiny rooms (our room barely accommodates the 3 beds) but free wifi. 

The quiet cobblestone road on which our Hotel is located

And even if the principal part of the view outside our window is that of a blank rear wall of the building next door, lean out a bit and you see the grey waters of the Marmara Sea framed by the leafless branches of a tree. And the occasional plump, as yet unidentified white and grey bird taking flight over the expanse of water. A mixed bag, in every way.....

Our room, Lady Diana Hotel, Sultanahmet, Istanbul. 6:00 PM local time.

Les parents were tired and cranky and the day was cold and drizzly, so I ventured out for a solitary stroll in the neighbourhood of the hotel. I enjoyed the cold for the first few minutes, but it started drizzling, and my toes started freezing through my open toed sandals.

The menu outside one of the restaurants near our hotel. The spellings might seem weird, but that can be explained when you take into account that Turkey adopted the Roman script for the Turkish language only in the early 1900s...and since it was a script that wasn't native, they adopted phonetic spelling, i.e. Spell as you speak...unlike English, but like Hindi or Marathi.

Another restaurant, serving shwarma, among other things. Linguistically - some words are very similar to their counterparts in Hindi/Urdu - e.g. lezzet - lijjat (flavourful), corba-shorba (soup). Alas, all restaurants near our hotel were closed on account of it being Sunday. :(

The church-like building opposite our hotel - never figured out what it was...but it certainly lent dignified old-world charm to the neighbourhood. :)

All streets in and around the Sultanahmet district of the Old City (where our hotel was located) are cobblestoned, with narrow sidewalks. You can see the Marmara Sea in the gaps between the buildings

 My walk was short- partly because it was freezing  cold and drizzly (my breath was coming in puffs of steam) and more because a strange guy approached me and asked me out- in Turkish. He was quite insistent and the road was pretty much deserted (Sunday means half the shops are closed and our hotel is in a quiet area) so I got kind of scared and headed back to the hotel. The anti climax was that he was about 60 years old.....

Anyway I visited 2 grocers shops to see what Turks buy and eat, and shopped at one. I bought Lays chips in a Turkish flavor, a jumbo 5-ltr can of drinking water and ate a grilled sandwich there......the feeling of biting into a piping hot meat and cheese sandwich in front of a heater in a tiny shop while it is cold and windy outside is beyond awesome! 

Istanbul is also famous for freshly squeezed orange juice that's available almost everywhere. I got juice and a grilled cheese sandwich for Ma and Baba so they were happy too. The juice was so bursting with freshness, yum!

Feeling kind of bad that I am cooped up in the hotel room instead of being out, but it's really cold. And that guy was creepy too....further exploration tomorrow...after the Bosphorous cruise. Besides, it's great to be ‘home’ with the folks too and catch up.

The mezzouin is giving the call for evening prayers now.....that plaintive yet sonorous voice on the air reminds one that this is not a cozy evening at home after all....it's a strange new land.

Can't wait for tomorrow to see this strange and beautiful city up close!