Return to İstanbul
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
I arrived back to the İstanbul otogar around midnight, just in time to catch the last metro to the airport, where I was to meet my girlfriend Lena early in the morning, who was coming to spend a week with me in the city. I decided it was easier and cheaper to go to the airport now and sleep and wait. When she arrived, we made our way to the Hotel Baron we were staying at. Yes, that’s right, I’m actually staying at a hotel, and a pretty nice one, at that! Such are the requirements of travelling with a girlfriend, especially one that requires a separate room, some more cleanliness, and has a worrying mother. A Turkish friend of her mother’s found us a nice, reasonably priced (€50 double) place in the Beyazıt shopping district to the west. It worked out well, because it also includes a huge buffet breakfast, and we were able to eat well enough in the morning that we didn’t really need to worry about any food throughout the day, and just getting a little something later in the evening. It helped offset the extra costs of the room a bit. Although it took quite some time to actually find the place in the winding streets, we managed and rested a bit before heading out that evening to see the city. We went to the main area around the Blue Mosque, the area I knew already. At night they do a light show with some music, changing the color of the mosque. [read on]
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