Weather – sunny with showers in Istanbul
Temperature: 22 – 26
This morning David and I set off for an early morning walk through Thira and passed the cable car to the top of the hill where the Catholic Cathedral and Bishop’s House sits. It was a lovely temperature following the old cobbled stoned streets where it was quiet and the busy tourist shops were still closed. From the top we could see a different view of Thira and where our hotel, Hotel Keti was situated.
As we came closer to the church we could hear Gregorian chants….it would be enchanting to report that real monks were singing inside but alas it was not to be…..some piped music! It was a serene experience though….
As we were making our way down we met a member of our former tour and told her about our wonderful catamaran trip. She seemed very interested and took down notes so I hope she follows through. It’s a small world when you are a tourist.
We packed and then struggled up the steps to the main road for the taxi. Cameron and David took the brunt of this haul – the price we paid for our well located hotel.
A word about Greek drivers – they are patient, never toot their horns and live by the rule: who dares wins! They are also completely reckless. After surviving the taxi ride from hell from Athens to Pireaus we met another maniac today. This driver was particularly gifted: he was using two mobile phones and a taxi radio while driving. My middle seat didn’t have a seat belt so I wrapped my arms through Desley and David’s! We arrived safely and in good time.
Our flights to Athens and to Istanbul were quick as it only took 30 minutes from Santorini to Athens and 50 minutes to Istanbul. It took more time showing our boarding passes/passports/customs and buying Turkish visas.
We were picked up by the hotel driver who is a distant relative of Greek taxi drivers. There is a significant difference here though: they are cranky and they use their horns! My seatbelt had given up being retractable long ago and would have fitted an elephant….but why was I worried….the driver didn’t wear his anyway.
The journey gave us a good idea just how big Istanbul is with its 12 million inhabitants. We travelled some of the way along the Sea of Marmara which seems to be a busy shipping lane.
Settling into our hotel was somewhat disappointing as there is very little room to store our clothes and as we are here for six nights it would have been so much better not to live out of our suitcases.
Dinner beckoned and we asked advice from reception. They were particularly helpful – “there are thousands around here”….most helpful! So we set out and turned left! Dining is going to be a bit of an adventure as we discovered tonight as there are touts calling for you all the time and showing you their menus. They are geared for tourists as they have pictures of the food in case there was any doubt about what we could order.
There was a shop with an amazing array of sweets – and that’s all they serve – lots of Turkish Delight, nougat, baklava, drizzled sweets etc. We’ve promised ourselves to go back!
We eventually settled on one which seemed to have a busy customer base and we were placed outside while the couple before us were rushed out of their table. No more had we sat down then it started raining so we were moved up grubby marble stairs to the upstairs room. After ascertaining whether the menu prices were in lira or euro (it was lira) and then finding it was also no alcohol we were all reduced to drinking soft drink with a mixed platter of meat balls, kebab, yoghurt, carrot, gyros and pizza. A huge piece of bread had arrived before this which didn’t fit into the bowl and sat mostly on the table. We hope the table was clean!
We enjoyed the meal and we were going to do a little exploring but it was still drizzling so we made our way back to the hotel. Desley went into a lovely little shop with a helpful man who sold her some coat hangers as they only had four in their hotel room and the reception didn’t have any more! While Desley and I looked around the shop David managed to buy some bottled water as we cannot drink the hotel’s.
All in all it was an interesting day. I wonder what lies ahead for us in Istanbul? More tales to come……
No comments:
Post a Comment