Istanbul

May 17, 2024

After 26 hours of travel I finally arrived at my hotel in Istanbul a bit tired but ready to explore this incredible city.

The trip to get here was harder than it should have been. I flew from Phoenix to Chicago and that part went really well. I had a 3 hour layover in Chicago and spent most of that in the Polaris lounge where I had a great lunch. Then things got a bit out of control. My flight to Frankfort ended up being over 2 hours late leaving and it was chaos at the gate with little information on what was happening. I was excited to be in the upper deck of the 747 and I assumed it would be quiet but that didn’t happen. Arriving in Frankfort I had 17 minutes to change terminals to make my flight to Istanbul. Well I got to the gate that I had confirmed 3 times only to find out they had moved it. I love that the agent at the wrong gate said “you need to hurry” No, I did not take the time to punch her. Got to the new gate where of course they delayed boarding for over 30 minutes.

If you have not been to Istanbul the scene at the airport is absolute chaos. I had prearranged my transfer and was grateful that I had because I am not sure I could have figured it out. Istanbul traffic is insane and the city is really crowded with both locals and tourist. I am looking forward to exploring on foot tomorrow but for tonight I am going on a sunset cruise on the Bosphorus Strait.

Hopefully the pictures tell the story of a speculative sunset that was the perfect introduction to Istanbul!!