I'm sure most of you have heard of the least favorable moment on our recent weekend to Istanbul, but luckily for us & our friends, there was so much more to it. We arrived to the airport & proceeded to wait for our taxi due to traffic. Traffic?! What an understatement! It took us over 2 hours to arrive into the city & to our hotel, during which men walked through the traffic cleaning windshields, selling waters, small apples, snacks, bananas (as we noted -- you could just do your grocery shopping on the 'ride' home). There are 15 million people living in Istanbul, and we saw a great many of them walking up the hills surrounding the highway, only to reach a barbed wire fence, how do they get over/under that we discussed? Then, there were the men sitting around the fire, under the tree, right next to the highway. During all this mayhem, our taxi driver would point & yell out in his thick accent where the different attractions were, including bus stop, car ferry, Asia, Bosphorous, Black Sea, all in one breath it seemed sometimes, and certainly not varying his pointing direction all that much. So, we arrived, stressed, wondering just what we were getting ourselves into. We dropped our bags & set out to meet up with Erin, Lachie & Erin's parents for our dinner reservation, which we already an hour late for. Friday night we ate, strolled, then slept.
Saturday about 4.30am we woke briefly to the call for prayer which is a gorgeous chanted reading of the Koran over a loud speaker. Considering we were close to many of the major mosques, the calls were frequently overlapping, competing, discordant, but lovely all the same. Both Joe & I were big fans, although most of our other friends seemed to have a bit more conflicting feelings about it. We spent the day going from one sight to the next, starting with the Blue Mosque, then to the Grand Bazaar, Spice Markets, into the new town, to the Topkapi Palace and finally, dinner. The scope of all these places is pretty hard to imagine if you haven't been in them. The mosques are immense, the grand bazaar a never-ending winding maze, and people, people, people. 15 mil is no joke.
So, we enjoyed a lovely dinner despite the absolutely miserable weather we had Saturday. We were to dine on the terrace with sea, mosque & endless other views. Ah well, the food was exceptional nonetheless. We surely would recommend the place to anyone who doesn't mind taking the steps up to the rooftop terrace, as clearly, their elevator is not to be trusted. So, we may have been 8 people in what we later learned was a 4 man elevator, but we all fit comfortably enough, so who would have even thunk of it? The general consensus is now that the elevator attempted to stop at the lobby floor but didn't engage correctly, causing us to fall one floor. The door to the elevator was slightly ajar, crap was flying in through the crack, the lights went out & then the emergency alarm was going off. We barely had time to realize what had happened when Joe was saying, 'my knee, my knee.' Adam yanked the door open & we all climbed out, minus Joe who was forcefully dragged out. Immediately the hotel staff was there to tell us about this poorly marked '4 person rule' and attend to Joe with ice, water, chairs, etc. We took a taxi back to the hotel which was one of the roughest, angst-inducing rides as Joe's knee & leg were all jammed up & the driver had severe road-rage. We decided to forgo medical attention in Turkey as at the time Joe was quite positive that 'everything would be okay.'
So, Sunday Joe spent the day on the hotel's terrace, ice on his knee & a bit of sun on his face. Adam, Trish & I headed out to see a few more sights, the underground cisterns & Ayasofia. Both of which were phenomenal. Ayasofia was unlike anything I've ever been in. It's incredible to think it was built between the year of 532-537 and was originally a cathedral, then a mosque, and now a museum. It was one of the most awe-inspiring man-made places I've been in. Sunday afternoon was spent on the rooftop terrace, dozing & tending to mi amor. Joe limped out of the hotel Sunday evening to a nearby cafe & the four of us spent the evening playing cards, trying to ignore the unfortunate girl speaking loudly in English behind us, drinking beers, taking photos & enjoying the evening.
Our taxi Monday morning was late due to traffic & we were all (esp. the driver) a bit stressed about making it at first. The driver seemed to know only one word in English: problem. And, he used it. We were a bit concerned when he said, 'flight problem, car problem.' Eeeehhh. Then, he called a buddy on the phone & said one word to us, 'fast?' And we shook our heads & his van shook with the strain & we picked up speed & made it to the airport in plenty of time. The whole trip was an adventure, some of which I would not care to repeat, but we all made it through.
More details to come on Joe's condition just as soon as I find a few more minutes to spare...
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