Serendipitous Mistakes...
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2007
1
28
68
Trip End
Nov 08, 2007
Istanbul,
Turkey
Thursday, September 13, 2007
We were flying back to Istanbul that afternoon on a 3.15pm flight, so a shuttle to the airport was booked for 12.30pm - which didn't leave us a lot of time to do anything in the morning by the time we faffed around and then had a leisurely breakfast. So we didn't do much more than wander around the back streets of Goreme, checking up on local life again.
The trip back to Istanbul went reasonably smoothly, despite the huge number of people on the flight. Luckily our shuttle connection had got us there early and we checked in before the rush started, but within 10 minutes of us arrivinga nd getting our boarding passes, the queues were stretched from one side of the check-in area to the other. The queues for the second security check (there's a first one before you can even enter the terminal in Turkey) were also huge and the plane didn't even start boarding until 15 mins after its scheduled takeoff time - so we were 45 mins late getting to Istanbul.
It ws the next bit of our journey that we were anticipating with some trepidation. We had decided to rent a car for the next 2 and a half weeks, from Hakan at the Apricot Hotel and someone was going to bring it out to the airport to meet us and we were going to set off from there to drive as far as we could down the Gallipoli Peninsular that night before we got too tired. We were not looking forward to navigating our way out of Istanbul, through the sheer bedlam and with the crazy drivers that make up Istanbul traffic. However, while the car turned up as expected, our luggage, that we'd left at Apricot and that Mehmet said he'd make sure was in the car too, wasn't! Telephone calls back and forward to the hotel (thanks Keith, the phone has been very useful!!), we decided the easiest thing to do was go back into Isatnbul, stay the night and leave early the next day. And that gave us the chance to really give Mehmet heaps and score some free beers off him!
There was no room at the Apricot, so Mehmet had found us a roomat a hotel round the corner - Hotel Romantic! Apart from the over the top, frilly and pink décor, it wasn't too romantic - tiniest room, single beds and a bathroom the size of a postage stamp - 2 people could hardly be in the room at the same time, let alone the luggage... However it was just fine as a place to stay for 1 very short night.
What we hadn't realised that meant we'd be in Istanbul for the end of the first day's fast for Ramadan. This is very big! Both sides of the Hipodrome/Oblisk park right outside the Blue Mosque had been lined with stalls, mostly selling food and (non-alcoholic) drink, with big marquee seating areas behind. Plus families had gathered in all the park areas around the Blue Mosque and AyaSofia waiting for the final prayer call to mark the end of fast - around 7.35pm. Then it was a huge feast time! Festive lights came on, music playing and thousands of people hoeing into their first food, drink and cigarette for over 13 hours!! We stood back and let the starving faithful get their fill before we bought a few things to eat as we wandered around. It was a great atmosphere and we were really glad in the end that Mehmet had made us change our plans.
(Just found that our camera card has unformatted itself, so lost all the photos we took in the past 36 hours since the balloon flight - bugger!!)
