Every time we go to Europe we have a great time. We have been wanting to go back since the last trip and finally we found some good flights and a time schedule that worked for us. The plan this time was for three countries – Turkey, Spain and Greece. We’ve been anxiously awaiting this trip since it has several destinations that we’ve wanted to see our whole lives, and the last six months it has been just about all that we talk about. Trip, trip, trip. So when the day finally came, we were more than ready.
Our first flight was delicately scheduled at 10:30 pm on Thursday, and since we were both working, we felt that five hours was more than ample time to get to the airport two hours before departure. But actually, we almost missed the flight.
In order to make sure that we made it, we took precautions and drove to work that day with our suitcase and clothes inside. We wanted to avoid the worst case scenario of a train stoppage, so the car made sense. The plan was to drive home after work, change clothes there, leave the car, and then take the train to Kobe and then the bus to the airport.
During the workday I watched the train schedule carefully, and looked for any delays. There weren’t any problems at all, until one minute before I left. Suddenly my cellphone alarm went off – it was an emergency alert for an earthquake nearby. What that also meant was that the trains were shutting down. Also, to make things tighter I had some last minute student visits, so I left a few minutes late. Kuniko was waiting outside in the car, and we dashed off. It turned out the earthquake was pretty mild, so we figured we’d stick to the original plan, hoping that the trains would resume service by the time we got home and changed.
Luckily, the trains were running by the time we got to the station. Unluckily, there were still periodic delays and we missed a few chances to change trains and catch up. Finally we made it to Kobe, and we caught a bus from there to the airport. Several times we had to stop for traffic, but we made it about two hours before the flight. Safe!
Kansai airport was pretty quiet, actually. He had our customary pre-trip cocktail at our usual bar, including a light dinner because we figured we’d be sleeping on the plane soon enough. The pre-trip cocktail is one of our favorite routines – work is done and only vacation ahead to look forward to.
We easily caught our flight on Turkish airlines, and enrolled in their mileage program since we’ll be flying with them quite often this trip. The food on board was actually pretty good. The eleven-hour-flight was smooth, and we even landed early in Istanbul (at 5 am). We walked out of the arrival gate and there were many guys standing around holding names on paper. We hadn’t arranged any transportation for this stage, but a guy had Kuniko’s name on a paper. We are used to this – the hotel sells the names to guys who will arrange some driver to take you to the hotel. It ends up being more expensive than a taxi, but we went over and asked him how much it would cost. He couldn’t quote a price right away and desperately tried to reach his driver by phone. No luck, though – so we left him behind to take the train, which was our original plan. He called out in desperation as we left, “There’s no train running at this time!” We sneered because we had already researched it and knew the truth. Scam, scam, scam.
One thing I noticed right away was the interesting blend of Middle East and European in the people walking around. I know the city straddles the border between Asia and Europe, but you can really tell by the appearance of the people. Maybe it is the fashion, the attitude, I don’t know. Another thing I noticed immediately was that the men seemed to hung up on machismo. Living in Japan you don’t really see that kind of thing, but this was like a flashback to my visits to Mexico when I was young. Guys were dressed up and checking out girls, and they looked very meticulous about their image.
We figured out the train system easily enough, and caught the next train into town. There was one transfer, and then we arrived in the historic Sultanahmet district. There was a scent in the air when we arrived – it smelled like cinnamon or clove, and I noticed it for the first few days of our visit before I got used to it. The area where we got off the train was deserted (it was awfully early after all) and so we started walking to our hotel based on the GPS direction that I had on the cellphone. We ended up walking right by the Blue Mosque. It was beautiful to behold from the outside, and I couldn’t resist parking the suitcase and taking some pictures right there. Around us there were tons of stray dogs running loose. I noticed later that each one had an electronic tag on their ear, but I’m not sure why they were bothering to keep track. We also saw some dogs chase a passing BMW sedan and try to bite the tires. The driver stopped the car and the dogs just stood there looking bored until the car started up again, and they chased after it again. Weird neighborhood!
The hotel was actually just a few minutes from the Blue Mosque, and we were able to check in right away. We even got a bonus breakfast while we checked in – they had laid out a pretty nice spread of traditional Turkish breakfast foods that consisted of olive pastes, hummus, breads, eggs, and lots of cheeses and meats.
Our room was on the top floor, and it enjoyed a beautiful ocean view. From our room we could watch the ships coming into the BosporusStrait. The view was very nice from there, but it turned out that it was even better from the rooftop of the hotel as we found out later.
We cleaned ourselves up after the long flight, and then went out to explore the city. We stayed in a big arc around the hotel, but managed to skirt the northeastern port and see all the activity around it. Cruise ships, a palace on the hill, and some fat old guys swimming in the ocean in tiny rubber trunks.
After we covered a lot of territory and really stretched our legs, we were starting to feel the heat of the day. During our trip we noticed that because there was comparatively lower humidity than in Japan, simply staying in the shade was a great way to cool down. We ended our loop on a cross town trip through empty streets. Apparently today was a religious holiday, and people were busy spending time at home with their families. That meant empty streets for us, which was no problem. Near our hotel we stopped and bought a couple of cold beers from the convenience store across the way, and then took them upstairs to the roof to watch the ships come and go. The view was superb – almost 270 degrees of ocean and city.
For lunch we went back into the historic part of town which had turned into the crowded touristy part of town since we had walked through last. We found a small restaurant that served some meatballs that are supposedly the local specialty. Each dish we ordered in Istanbul came with a giant puffed piece of bread approximately the size of a watermelon. As it cooled it deflated to look more like naan bread, but a little more firm. It was good but filling, and we avoided it hoping to concentrate more on the main courses. We also discovered that it is pretty hard to say thank you in Turkish. “Tay-shay kkuray durim” doesn’t exactly pop right out as the waiter is walking away.
After lunch it was getting hotter and even more tourists were piling into the neighborhood. We made a judgment call to head back to the hotel and take a nap. We cranked up the air conditioning and enjoyed a few hours of restful sleep. This kind of method of avoiding the heat became a bit of a habit in the first few days while we were resting up from our busy work schedule. I know that siestas are supposed to happen in Spain, but we started practicing early.
When we finally got up and moving again it was close to dinner time, so we went to another restaurant that looked good. It was billed as a BBQ house, and they served so many kinds of kebabs it was overwhelming. I had the bright idea to order several kebabs a la carte instead of the way they were presented on the menu. I wanted to try different meats but I didn’t want so many salads and veggies and rice on the side. Technically it was a success – we received everything a la carte, but on the bill they went ahead and charged us for the full meals anyway. Expensive dinner! The meat was very tender and delicious, but it was difficult to finish all of it. Eyes were much bigger than my stomach. I was interested to note that throughout our stay in Turkey we only saw male waiters – I can only guess why. We also tried our first Turkish wines of the trip. The white wine was pretty good, but the red was disappointing. It was almost more sherry-like to me.
We walked back across the historic square in front of the Blue Mosque and found a festival going on. It was perhaps related to the religious holiday. There were tons of locals out celebrating, and only a few tourists walking around. We walked around enjoying the atmosphere, and even had a chance to buy some roasted chestnuts from a street vendor and go through a street market located right near the big mosque. Finally we ran out of gas and headed back to the hotel and headed straight to bed. We were a little alarmed to be awoken at 4:04 a.m. by morning prayers blaring from the nearby mosques. Loudest prayers I’ve ever heard!
