We nodded off a bit during our flight from Doha to Istanbul. While the flight from Arusha to Doha actively took a somewhat circuitous route to completely avoid overflying Saudi Arabia, our second flight had no qualms about cutting across Iraq. After landing, we rapidly went through passport control only to find ourselves waiting 90 mins for our bags to arrive at the carousel. Just at the moment that we thought we’d have to report missing bags, the familiar black and ruggedized look of two flight crew bags bursting at the seams came into view.
We hightailed it toward the exit where I used the Uber app to summon a regular yellow taxi. Apparently ride-share is a bit contentious in this town, so the app’s only purpose is to hail a taxi, which worked out fine. The Ataturk Airport is quite far from the city center, and it took us over an hour to arrive at the Sultanahmet neighborhood of Istanbul.
We followed Google maps the rest of the way to our hotel since cars couldn’t drive on many of the streets in the neighborhood. As it turned out, the pin on the map didn’t exactly match the site of the hotel’s reception either. It would seem that this is an extremely common occurrence to have a couple tourists wondering why the door is locked next to the sign for the Hilton Curio Collection. A very helpful man working on a Turkish rug next door must have had the Hilton on speed dial, and two minutes later, a man with a golf cart was there to pick us up and take us to check-in.
The property is not how one would envision a Hilton property. It’s actually a collection of different buildings that were already part of the neighborhood — mostly as housing for high-ranking officials from the Ottoman era. And now they are home to Bricole. Our room overlooks the Aya Sofia mosque, though we are so close that “overlook” might be generous. We are basically already on top of it. Nicole is a bit concerned about the early morning alarm clock we will be getting tomorrow thanks to the call to prayer.
The bathroom is quite an attraction on its own. It’s downright massive. It may actually be bigger than the rest of the room. After resting for a bit and regenerating our strength after a long day(s) of travel, we walked around the neighborhood to get our bearings.
It was obviously not difficult to locate the Aya Sofia (or Hoggia Sophia). There were many people out, and it took a bit of getting used to from being around no one for days. On the plus side, people were very compliant with mask-wearing. I would put it on par with Los Angeles. We walked from the Aya Sofia to the “Blue Mosque,” which took no more than a couple minutes. As it was later in the afternoon, everything was quite busy, so we didn’t bother entering either of the mosques today. We will try tomorrow morning before the crowds arrive.
We walked around the neighborhood for a little while to escape the crowds. It’s a very quaint area. Cobblestone streets wind up and down hills. Other than the restaurant hosts hustling for business, it’s a very calm area. We made our way back to our hotel for dinner outside.
It was our first meal in some time that wasn’t served on a tray table. (Note the provided hand sanitizer and wipes). It got chilly quite rapidly after the sun went down, so we went back to our room to warm up and immediately pass out. We need as much sleep as we can get before the neighbor next door wakes us up bright and early with the call to prayer.
passports & pepto bismol 