Have now finished the second of our long flights having flown Turkish Airlines from Singapore to Istanbul arriving at 0530am, about 40 minutes early, and a cool 13°C. The 40 minutes was quickly eaten up by queueing for immigration and customs – there were no hassles just a lot of people from flights that all seemed to arrive at 0530. Unfortunately we somehow missed the person from the tour company who was supposed to pick us up and deliver us to the hotel. Eventually we went to the information centre to ask them to page him whereupon they gave us a message from him. After a few phone calls we organised a pick up point for his return to the airport.


At the time of starting this part of the blog we are in the hotel lobby waiting for our room. We could have immediately taken a vacant room without windows but resisted the temptation. During this wait we started up a conversation with another Kiwi couple to find out that Anne and the other woman both attended Wellington East College at the same time; small world.


After getting into our room and checking there were windows, which we may regret when the
“call to prayer” starts up at ~4am, we cleaned up and headed out for lunch and a walk around the district. Lunch included the first (probably of many we will have) kebabs.

 
Our hotel is located in the old district of Sultanahmet. The walk was just really to get our bearings but we ended up walking through the Grand Bazaar. Opened in 1461 this is one of the oldest covered markets in the world. It has more tha 4,000 shops in over 50 streets. Being under cover gave us some reprieve from the unexpected 27°C heat. At least our visit to Singapore had helped to prepare us. After the bazaar we came upon a Turkish Bath (Hamami) which first opened in 1475.

A quiet evening and early night is on the cards as the jetlag seems to be catching up with us.