Days 16 and 17 - Glasgow to Istanbul

21^st and 22^nd April 2023

Yesterday was spent travelling from Glasgow to Istanbul, with a three-hour stopover at Heathrow. It was a long day, with us not getting into Istanbul until just after midnight. The flight from London to Istanbul was very pretty as for much of the trip we were able to see the lights of Europe below us. As we arrived in the middle of the night we stayed at an hotel near the airport.

The Istanbul airport is quite a long way out of Istanbul city. This morning we were collected by the tour company and driven into our Istanbul city accommodation. The drive took nearly an hour, and the traffic was crazy. Most of the trip was on a motorway system, but cars were parked on the sides, people standing on the side of the motorway chatting and smoking, livestock (sheep and cattle) in paddocks on the edge of the motorway with no fencing that we could see, and cars driving very fast and constantly swapping lanes. As we got into heavy traffic, drivers seemed to be quite courteous and letting cars who had been travelling on the edge of the road into the proper lane. I’m not sure if car seats are a thing here since I noticed that many cars had children sitting on parents’ laps. It was chaos and I was very pleased that we weren’t driving.

Our hotel is near the banks of the Bosphorus, so from the roof top bar we get amazing views up and down the Bosphorus, with Europe on the right-hand bank, and Asia on the left-hand bank. We had a little stroll down to the river edge and immersed ourselves into the masses of people. The riverbank was a bit like Circular Quay in Sydney, but on steroids. There were so many ferries coming and going, and all of them were crammed with people. Lots of street vendors selling food – corn on the cob, something that looked a bit like roasted chestnuts, pretzel looking baked goods, and lots of strong Turkish coffee. We are still trying to work out if pedestrian crossings are actually a thing. The lines are painted on the road, but cars seem very hesitant to stop. It was really interesting just wandering around for a while – lots of smells, sounds and people watching. People seemed to be really happy, despite it being so busy.

 

Left middle photo is of the ferries arriving and leaving. People sit along the edge of the Bosphorus with their feet hanging over. Photo on the right is a view from our hotel looking up the Bosphorus towards the Black Sea. The bottom photo, also from our hotel, is looking toward the Sea of Marmars.

Tonight we have dinner with our tour group, and we will get to explore Istanbul properly with them tomorrow before heading off to other parts of Turkey on Monday.