Our Last Day in Istanbul

Why is it that the travel days always seem to be the most epic?  I’m not sure if you’ve got more time to think about things or that there are so many unknowns but it seems every time we move something funny or unexpected happens...

Gardens in the palace.

 Our day started with the usual get up, breakfast but we let Jenna sleep and the three of us headed for the Topkapi Palace.  On our way you could tell something big was happening around the Blue Mosque.  There were hundreds of police and security people surrounding the mosque which we later learned that the President of Turkey was inside.  Figured we didn’t need to worry about pick pockets today!  We headed for the palace to wander around the gardens and check out the area when it was time to find a bank, food and head back to finish packing and catch our shuttle.  We had to fly out of the international airport on the Asian side of Istanbul which doesn’t have nearly the smooth transportation access that the European airport has.  I thought it would be smart and make our lives all much easier by taking the shuttle that picked us up at our hotel.

Palace guards on their patrols.

We packed up and said goodbye to our new friend, Mehmet to jump into the bus that just stopped in the middle of the road so it wasn’t long before the horns started up and chased us into the vehicle.  We proceeded to try to pick up a few others but between miss parked vehicles and people showing up late it took almost an hour before we even got on the road.  So here we are, the bus is full, the heater under my seat is cranked and the air conditioning is maxed.  It got so hot in there that the Indian guy in the back started complaining.  You know it’s hot when!!! 

As we drove through the city we discovered where they were hiding the 13 million people we hadn’t seen in Istanbul.  We were staying in Sultanamet which is the old part of town in the southeast corner of the European side of Istanbul.  There were lots of people around but not what I had expected 14 million to look like.  On our way out we discovered rush hour in Istanbul where there are only two vehicle bridges that link the European side to the Asian side trying to get across the Bosphorus Strait. 

Trying to get across the Bosphorus Strait.

The shuttle bus driver was pretty nuts as a good chunk of the journey he drove on the shoulder past everyone.  Then on exits he pulled into the exit and would jump back in at the last second.  I hate drivers like that back home but it was kind of convenient to be in the bus with him.  We thought we had lots of time to make our flight but after the two and a half hour shuttle (supposed to be just over an hour) it turned out to be a little closer than we thought.  When entering the airport we had to run everything through a metal detector before we could even get inside, not sure if it’s always been like that but security was pretty tight.

Getting my dress on in the palace gardens.

Once they were ready to load we got piled into a bus and driven out to the plane.  It seemed to take forever to take off and we were still sitting there when we were supposed to be in Nevsehir.  Luckily, we booked a shuttle on the other side or I think we might have been stranded at the airport on the other side as the buses shut down early there.  We got delivered to our hostel, dumped the bags and headed for dinner at the crack of 10:30.  It’s not that unusual seeing people eat at this time and we’re slowly falling into that schedule. 

As we headed into Gerome, it was really cool how the fairy chimneys are lit up.  It gave for an eerie feeling too descend into town with these crazy land forms all around.  As we had a brief walk around town the chimneys and houses are all interspersed and blended together, its pretty wild as this landscape is nothing we’ve ever seen before.  I’m looking forward to explorations over the next few days.

 

Old stuff just parked on the side of an alleyway in Istanbul.  Old stuff everywhere.

Photo shoot in the palace gardens.