Arrival in Istanbul

I'm in Istanbul for the wedding of my dear Turkish friend and former student Gulin Yilmaz. With the craziness of the job hunt and subsequent move this summer, I had not thought much about this trip until I actually landed in Istanbul.

I flew Lufthansa for the first, and probably last, time. Beyond the fact that there were no individual tvs at the seats and no toothbrush, socks, or eye covers for the 12 hour flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt, I literally do not fit in the seats. The length of my femur is exactly the same as the distance from the back of my seat to the back of the seat in front of me, which means that the person in front of me cannot recline their seat because my knees are in the way! The French woman in front of me discovered this as she was trying to force her seat back and I had to tap her on the shoulder and let her know that my knees were what was keeping her seat back. Later on in the flight, she apologetically said she might want to sleep later and would it be okay if she put her seat back - I apologetically replied that that would not be possible given that my knees were still in the way, but offered to switch seats with her when she wanted to sleep (she had the bulkhead). A few minutes later she said, "I think we should switch seats now, it will be better for you." Hell yeah it would be better for me! As I sank into the bulkhead seat, I said a silent prayer of thanks for the few extra inches of legroom and for the Frenchwoman who was more interested in reclining her seat than stretching her legs.

I had a three hour layover in Frankfurt, during which I discovered that Germans must not have the South Beach diet because there were no South Beach friendly items on any of the menus at the airport restaurants. The three hour flight to Istanbul had lots of empty seats and I got a window seat at an exit row so was able to sleep a few more hours.

I landed in Istanbul and easily acquired the Turkish visa, breezed through customs, picked up my bags, and hopped in a cab to the hotel. I had approached this trip with trepidation, remembering the absolute chaos that greeted me at the airports in Mumbai, Delhi, and Cairo. The scene at the Istanbul airport is much more similar to what you would find at Charles de Gaule - orderly, clearly marked, clean with the subtle scent of cigarette smoke. We drove along the Bosphorus and I was struck by the brilliant blue of the water matching the clear blue sky and the houses dotting the coastline, somewhat reminiscent of an overgrown fishing village.

I arrived at the Hotel Berce, a boutique hotel in Sultanahmet with seven rooms that I found on TripAdvisor. Given the very reasonable price I was paying, I was pleasantly surprised to find the hotel so well-appointed. The rooms are clean and nicely furnished with pretty artwork on the walls and new bathrooms with nice appliances. And free wireless internet. The nice young man who checked me in informed me that it would take me at least an hour to get to dinner so I should leave right away. After 24 hours of traveling, I was in desperate need of a shower so I quickly showered, changed, checked email, and hopped in a cab to go to dinner. Based on my experience at Gulin's bachelorette party, I get the sense that Turkish women are very fashionable, so I knew I needed to put on something chic for dinner (went with a turquoise dress and silver heels).

I sat in traffic for over an hour to get to dinner at Reina, Istanbul's hottest nightclub and home to several restaurants. It's a beautiful open air restaurant/club at the foot of the Bogazici Bridge. Dinner was Turkish food - salad, tomatoes, chicken, lamb, kofta. There were about 40 people at dinner. The nationality mix was probably 40% Turkish, 40% French, and 20% everyone else (the bride is Turkish and the groom is French). As I started making small talk with the other dinner guests, I realized how incredibly tired I was - I could barely string together a sentence. I also hadn't eaten since breakfast. After a few glasses of Turkish wine and some yummy food, however, I was in much better shape. There are lots of interesting people at this wedding, so I don't even have to do much talking, I can just ask questions and hear about all their adventures in France/Central Asia/Saudi Arabia/Turkey/etc.

I managed to stay up past midnight and finally came home to crash. I was worried when I discovered I could not shut my window all the way. I'm a light sleeper and wake up easily to noise, so I put in earplugs in preparation for some noisy morning traffic. When I awoke this morning, however, the only noise was the sound of a cat meowing loudly outside. I went up to breakfast on the roof terrace and enjoyed eggs, cheese, and vegetables while taking in a stunning view of the Bosphorus. I was so taken by the view of the Bosphorus that it wasn't until the end of breakfast that I turned around and noticed the Blue Mosque towering over my shoulder. There was an older gentleman sitting on the roof terrace smoking a cigarette. He didn't say anything to me for the first 15 minutes I was up there, but as I started remarking on how beautiful the city was, I found out that he was the proprietor of the hotel. When I mentioned I wanted to buy jewelry, he invited me to come to his jewelry shop. I love the fact that he didn't mention the jewelry shop until 20 minutes into our conversation when I specifically said I wanted to buy jewelry - most places I've been to, if there is a shop to be visited, it is offered in the first sentence of the exchange.

Istanbul has the most beautiful light - it seems to be constantly bathed in a warm glow. I noticed it yesterday evening and thought it was just because it was the evening, but again this morning it was still glowing.

I'm off to do some sightseeing before switching hotels and then the wedding this evening!