August 20 Geneva-Frankfurt-Istanbul
The actual flying time from Geneva straight to Istanbul is a luxuriously short 2 hour jet, but since Swiss air doesn't fly there and Turkish Airlines was charging oh $750 for the flight we had to fly Lufthansa from Geneva through Frankfurt to Istanbul which ended up taking all day. Like ALL day. Our flight left geneva at 9:50 am and we didn't arrive in Istanbul until 7:00pm. It wasn't so bad though, because flying within Europe was a vintage experience - no disrobing for security (mum was able to keep both her jackets AND her new laced up to there tennies on), liquids permitted in carry-on luggage, and complimentary food.
Something interesting about Turkey - you pay for your visa upon arrival and there were about 20 differentiations regarding how much money you paid depending on a) what country you hailed from and b) what kind of currency you paid with. FYI for the great citizens of the USA the going rate is $20 USD. Not to shabby considering I paid $125 last year to go to Brazil. However, the visa officials were none too nice and actually sneered at mum when she asked if they took American Express. Ok so maybe that was a bad example, they also snatched my cash out of my hand and literally threw my passport at me.
We took a taxi to our hotel in the heart of the Sultanahmet, which is the "tourist" district and after a little squabble with the reception about our reservation settled into our small triple room. I picked this hotel because it had great reviews on Tripadvisor. Yes, I used tripadvisor, but I was at the end of my rope and not knowing anyone who has been to Turkey, figured it was better than nothing. Ideally, I would have stayed at the Four Seasons and called it a day but unfortunately that was out of our price range. Sari Konak, our hotel, being around the corner from Chez Four Seasons didn't sound so bad. And it wasn't - the room was small but clean and adequate and the staff was very genial after that initial misunderstanding. However, one thing to remember about traveling. Even when you are really tired and your Lonely Planets and Time Outs are packed at the bottom of your bags and all you've eaten all day is airplane food and crackers, do not go to a restaurant that the hotel recommends, no matter how much they insist that it's their favorite place, if they keep their brochures in the lobby and the restaurant sends a car to pick you up. The food wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. But the Blue Mosque at night was lovely.
Something interesting about Turkey - you pay for your visa upon arrival and there were about 20 differentiations regarding how much money you paid depending on a) what country you hailed from and b) what kind of currency you paid with. FYI for the great citizens of the USA the going rate is $20 USD. Not to shabby considering I paid $125 last year to go to Brazil. However, the visa officials were none too nice and actually sneered at mum when she asked if they took American Express. Ok so maybe that was a bad example, they also snatched my cash out of my hand and literally threw my passport at me.
We took a taxi to our hotel in the heart of the Sultanahmet, which is the "tourist" district and after a little squabble with the reception about our reservation settled into our small triple room. I picked this hotel because it had great reviews on Tripadvisor. Yes, I used tripadvisor, but I was at the end of my rope and not knowing anyone who has been to Turkey, figured it was better than nothing. Ideally, I would have stayed at the Four Seasons and called it a day but unfortunately that was out of our price range. Sari Konak, our hotel, being around the corner from Chez Four Seasons didn't sound so bad. And it wasn't - the room was small but clean and adequate and the staff was very genial after that initial misunderstanding. However, one thing to remember about traveling. Even when you are really tired and your Lonely Planets and Time Outs are packed at the bottom of your bags and all you've eaten all day is airplane food and crackers, do not go to a restaurant that the hotel recommends, no matter how much they insist that it's their favorite place, if they keep their brochures in the lobby and the restaurant sends a car to pick you up. The food wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. But the Blue Mosque at night was lovely.
posted by shewannabecool at 10:06 AM
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