Istanbul, Turkey
It was an early morning but it was worth it! Anyone who knows me knows even though I have travelled plenty, my geography is terrible. I didn’t realize until getting to Istanbul that part of the city is in Europe and part of the city is in Asia. There are not a lot of days in your life where you’ll have the opportunity to set foot on three continents. I wanted to make today one of those days. The boys were game to go on my adventure with me, so we met for breakfast at 7:45am.
After breakfast we hopped in a cab and rode it to the ferry terminal where we crossed the Bosphorus to a municipality called Uskudar. The ride was quick. It took roughly seven minutes. We got off the boat, took a few pictures, walked around a little bit, went in the tourist information office and then proceeded to ride the ferry back to Europe.
By 10:30am it was time to say goodbye to Scott and venture off to the airport. As previously mentioned traffic in Istanbul can be terrible, so we wanted to be sure to allow adequate time for our 1:55pm departure. The cab ride ended up taking a little over an hour. By 12:05pm we had checked in, cleared customs and found our way to the Turkish Air Lounge, the nicest lounge I have ever visited by a factor of five. I could write a thesis on its cool elements. Instead enjoy these photos:
Scanners for electronic check in with the barcode on one's ticket.
Lockable luggage storage.
The pool table and library.
One of many multiple fruit tables.
A salad bar.
The piano was getting tuned.
Once tuned, the tuner and a staff member of the lounge set the piano's autoplay
list through an ipad and the piano's own wireless network.
The non-alcoholic beverage cooler.
One of a few hard alcohol bars. Aged whiskey anyone?
27" Imacs for your web-browsing pleasure.
The theater room.
What's a theater room without a popcorn machine?
Tables for consuming the endless free yummies.
The TV wall of sports and news.
The pasta bar.
The pizza bar.
This laptop projects all current Turkish Air flights in the sky...
... on this wall.
The kids play area.
One of the video game stations.
A quiet area for prayer.
The lounge concierge.
A meeting table for large groups.
A place to make cell phone calls without disturbing others.
The women's restroom sinks.
The women's restroom bathroom stalls.
The women's restroom makeup mirrors.
The bathroom sinks.
The burger, chicken and rice bar.
The nut bar.
More flat bread pizza.
The wine bar.
The dessert bar.
The single best in lounge food item I've ever had.
Fruit tart.
Bread pudding and pastries.
It’s hard to believe that this adventure with Ben is nearly over. There were certainly days that went faster than others but for the most part this trip flew by. Ben has never been to NYC, so we are going to spend 24 hours in the city that never sleeps before making our way back to Eugene. For now I’m going to enjoy the perks of business class travel from Istanbul to Newark.
See you in the States!
Katy
No picture of the urinals?
ReplyDeleteI took one (they were pretty cool) but for some reason Katy did not post it. ;)
Delete