On the Road to Constantinopal

I finished my stay in London with another ride on the Hop-on-hop-off bus so nothing exciting to share from that, then finished with an Irish beef rib eye and all the fixings I made in my apartment. I'm not sure what the difference is between Irish and British beef other than where it is raised, but it is all clearly marked in the store.

Packed up and left at 7:30 for my 10:30 flight since BA had been having so many problems with their system, didn't want to take a chance on problems like they had in Denver.  Of course there were none and I was at the airport way too early BUT Terminal 5 at Heathrow is amazing.  It is the BA terminal and they have to BA lounges that I had access to because of my ticket.

I have said more than once I would be fine stranded at Heathrow for a while as long as I was on BA, I swear you can all but live in the lounge.  Big bathrooms for changing, showers, work areas, relaxation areas, food of every kind and every kind of alcohol and mixer you can imagine just out for the taking, and not just in one place, there were several self service bars in each lounge.  Of course my favorite thing was the espresso machine - amazing lattes and all I wanted as often as I wanted. Yummy egg and cheese rolls.  Interesting that they put ketchup on everything.  Me, I just pulled the egg and cheese out and ate it with jam on the roll.  Silly American!

The flight to Istanbul was delightful.  It was pretty empty which I learned (and will talk about on another post) is a problem right now for Istanbul.  We had the choice of chicken or salmon.  I had the chicken and it was delicious - can't say that about food on American air lines.  Dessert included a cheese plate and a pastry.  Stetson cheese - oh so yummy.

BA Lunch on the Plane

Many friends had expressed concern about my going to Istanbul.  My biggest concern was they would cancel that leg of the excursion and I would miss out on Istanbul all together.  But fortunately nothing changed and I am now in Istanbul!

The airport seemed like any international airport.  The only real difference was the presence of police and military.  There were many and they were all wearing vests (I am assuming bullet proof) and had hand guns and machine guns.  And like so many places in the world, they had the all-important smart phone which was checked on a very regular basis.

Since I knew nothing about Istanbul I scheduled a car through my local car service and my delightful driver, Youseff, met me at the airport.  It was about a 30 minute drive with traffic and since his job also included being a tour guide, he provided highlights along the way that were very interesting. 

Hotel Avante Garde Taksim Square

Hotel Avante Garde Taksim Square

Hotel Avante Garde Taksim Square

Taksim Square from my room

My first night was at a small hotel called the Avantegarde Taksim Square. The pictures on Google are totally inaccurate as is the location on a map. Much to my surprise it was a lovely hotel facing Taksim Square and barely a block from my final destination. Even better, just a block from Starbucks! The staff was delightful and my hotel was a typical European room, not overly generous on space, but it was very nice, smartly arranged and I have a lovely balcony overlooking the square, which was really a big beautiful park. Since it was already evening when I arrived my only trek was to Starbucks for a no foam latte (venti of course) and Istanbul mugs. One for me and one for my sister Cindy. Cindy of course already had the mug but since I let her know I got it, she has already traded it for a mug from Sweden – glad it turned out to be something she could use (or trade).

Hotel Intercontinental Istanbul

Hotel Intercontinental Istanbul

Hotel Intercontinental Istanbul

Hotel Intercontinental Istanbul

View of Bosphorus Strait

I arrived in Istanbul on Friday. Saturday I walked, luggage in tow, to my final destination, the Intercontinental Taksim Square. What a lovely hotel. I have a beautiful room on the 12th floor looking out over Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Just beautiful.

We learned at our first Uniworld meeting that there were only 104 on the boat (capacity of 135) and of those, only 49 of us chose to come to Istanbul. The rest opted just to go straight to Bucharest. I have since learned that Uniworld is dropping Istanbul as a tour destination because of the unrest. I am one of five Americans, the rest at the hotel are from Australia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.