Arrival in Istanbul

Nancy dropped me at Kelowna airport, flight to Vancouver then from Vancouver to Frankfurt were on time. Dozed off on the red-eye, probably got 3 hours in. Connection to the Turkish flight to Istanbul was a bit late, but arrived close to on time about 14:30 local time. On the approach to IST, I noticed just how many huge apartment complexes there were so far from town. City is 18 million. The airport is huge. The longest taxi from runway to the gate I have ever had. Then after getting off the plane, I measured the distance from my gate to passport control at 1.5 km.

Took a while to get out of the airport. Did not like the service fee proposed at the ATM, so located and lined up for a Change office and paid 86CAD for 1000TL. Wanted to buy a SIM card, but the service was slow and the crowd large. So went to the bus and there was an overflow, so this was going to be too much for me to wait for the next bus that still required a 20 minute walk at the other end. So I bailed and took a cab on the meter. Cost 300TL instead of the 70 for the bus and got dropped off at the hotel door.

Hotel Gritti Pera located in a very lively side street off the Istiklal main drag. Basically got in at 6 and went to look for a Turkcell phone store where I heard you could get a SIM card for 13CAD but without a cell phone to navigate with, couldn't find the one I wanted . So went back to the hotel where I had noted they sold them at the front desk for $20USD. Twice the data of the other one though. Then a short wait for the pick up for the cruise.

How exciting, my trip has officially begun!Read more