The journey started bright and early at 4am when, with our friends Nik & Nish, we set off for Heathrow T5 to catch our 07:05 flight to Istanbul. Our first excitable moment was when we got to take a ride from the car park to the terminal in "the Pod", which was like an electric tram, all automated and no driver. It was at this point whilst Nish and I were having a chat, the word visa came up... Yes, to go to Turkey you need a visa, which we of course had not applied for. On our previous trips, we had always received one on arrival, but the website (after a last minute Google search) told us this was no longer available. Luckily enough, there was a quick online form which would just issue us an email with the visas, which we patiently awaited.
Next came bag drop off. The queues were ridiculously long across all the BA counters, and Neil thought he'd try his luck in the Premier Club line. Success! Dropped our bags and off we headed in search of some breakfast. With a bit of frequent flyer chat, we wangled all four of us into the lounge with minimum squabble and had a champagne breakfast. This is probably one of the few times hearing about Neil's incessant BA points chat, came in handy.
After a 4 hour flight we arrived in Istanbul and took our taxi to the Grand Hyatt. The hotel was beautiful, lovely rooms, great staff and a prime location. After freshening up (and a bit of poolside dining/drinking/lazying) we headed out for dinner at a highly recommended rooftop restaurant, Kat 6.
When we arrived, we were surprised at the hidden entrance, and the odd max 3 person lift with a gate. It really looked like the place had been closed down and left for dust but after overcoming our inhibitions we got in, 2 at a time and made our way to the top. Not only was the view incredible, the food was good, the wine better and staff relaxed. After 4 hours of some ridiculous and entertaining conversations, we head back to our hotel terrace bar and were treated to blankets and heaters with our drinks. We also learnt a pretty awesome horse racing drinking card game... (Thanks Niko!)
The next morning, we woke up with the intention of making the most of the day and getting through all the sites, with the first being the blue mosque. From a far it looked a bit like Princess Jasmine's palace, and was an interesting piece of architecture.
You are able to venture inside but the internal tour is closed off during prayer hours, which is notable by a loud echo' chant across the city, through various speakers. There is also a dress code, women to have heads, shoulders and knees covered, men to have shoulders and knees covered. Given the heat during the day, we took extra clothing to put on there, but also found that they provided scarfs to cover heads.
The biggest thing for us was the building architecture and after waiting 30ish minutes in a queue to get in, in the boiling heat, we decided that the external view and photos of the internal view were sufficient to keep us happy. Plus given that this was our only full day in the city, we had a lot of ground to cover. We wandered around the city centre for a bit and came across a world famous Hammam, Ayasofya (rated number 1 on tripadvisor). On a previous trip to Turkey, the four of us had experienced the Turkish bath, and were keen to do something similar here. Inside Ayasofya was beautiful, it reminded me of a Roman bath with clean white marble everywhere. Nish and I decided we'd 100% be in for a full spa package, only to find it was fully booked for our whole time there. We thought we'd try our luck at spas in the area (and our hotel spa) only to find that for some reason everything was full for our remaining time and accepted that unfortunately on this trip we wouldn't be reliving the relaxing Hammam Spa experience. Key message here is pre-book!
We then decided to wander through to the famous bazaars. It was just what you would typically expect from a bazaar. People trying to flog you all sorts of things, from spices to leather bags and knock off designer gear. That afternoon, after being hounded through the markets, we went home with some sunglasses and a football shirt, less than we could have bought but more that we probably needed. Whilst it is worth seeing some of the amazing glass lamps, rugs and intricate fabrics, go in prepared for a bit of a pestering and with your best haggling hat on.
After a long day in the city centre of Istanbul, we head back to the hotel for a quick freshen up and back out for dinner and drinks.
We came back into the centre of town and found a local Turkish cuisine restaurant, where over wine and good conversation we consumed a significant variety of mezzes. Finishing up, we felt the night was still young and so went in search for a dessert/shisha spot. We were thoroughly spoilt for choice, and propped ourselves up in an outdoor bar, with two shishas and some mint tea. Two shisha's and many a card games later, we decided to head back to the hotel, only to stop to release a fire lantern in the middle of the city... very apt for that moment in time.
The next day, we had our flight booked for 6pm and therefore a whole day to relax by the swimming pool and appreciate the sun. We also used this time to perfect our dubsmash skills much to Nik and Neil's despair (particularly as we made them participate). We were pretty chuffed with our end product #waveafterwave and spent much of the time in hysterics re watching the video.
Before we knew it, we were checking out and in a cab back to the airport. The trip went so quick (we say it every time), but had built so many funny moments and memories to last us a lifetime. Obviously we dreamt up where we could go next and for some strange reason, I have a feeling the next will involve a golf and spa resort (win win for all).
And for those of you interested... our epic dubsmash can be found on my instagram page - "jblogsweb"
