Last Stop – Istanbul

Well, we’re finally at our last stop of our adventure. We had an uneventful 100-minute flight from Athens. Once on the ground that changed a little. It took over 15 minutes for our chair to get to the gate (usually it’s the first thing off the plane), and then we had to wait another 10 minutes or so for a wheelchair assistant to arrive as they wouldn’t let me push Peter myself. Then once out of the gate area, we waited some more while our guy went to assist someone else. Once he got back, we walked about 5 miles (at least it seemed that far) to get to passport control.

I had researched the need for a Visa and didn’t see anything that said it was needed. Well, it turns out we did need one which cost $60. No big deal except I didn’t have $60 so I tried to put it on my credit card. Except he didn’t want to take the credit card. He kept pointing to the sign that said I could pay in either Euro, Dollar or Pound, none of which I had. After about 5 minutes of back and forth, he finally took my credit card. So, now we can come back to Turkey as often as we want for the next 6 months. Of course, we don’t want to come back to Turkey, but we could if we wanted.

Then it was another LONG walk to baggage claim but the good news there was that it had taken so long to arrive, there weren’t many bags twirling on the carousel. Once I had the bags, I thought we were home free, but wait…our assistant walked away with the companion of the other wheelchair person he was helping. After about 10 minutes, I decided to find our driver on our own. By this time, it was almost 2pm and we had landed at 12:30pm and I wasn’t sure how long the driver would wait. As we were leaving, helper came back and led us out to meet the driver…. who wasn’t there.

Twenty minutes later, we’re finally in a mini-van, loaded and ready for the 1-hour drive into the Old City of Istanbul. Peter has trouble getting into mini vans because of the high step and the distance from the door to the seats. So, when we got to the hotel, the driver decided to help Peter by physically lifting him and carrying him in his arms out of the van and up 4 steps. I saw him doing that and almost had a heart attack. I kept saying, “he can walk, he can walk” but apparently, I needed to say it in Turkish as he didn’t understand.

Once in the hotel, we were treated like royalty. It’s a Hilton Doubletree and I have no shame in taking advantage of my Diamond status. While we waited for our room, they brought tea and coffee which we enjoyed while munching on our Doubletree cookie. BTW, they’ve changed the recipe and they’re not nearly as good as they used to be. That didn’t stop us from eating them, though.

They upgraded us to a deluxe room (no suites available this time) and it’s lovely. After freshening up, we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner where Peter enjoyed pasta while I had a cheeseburger. It had been a while since I’d had one and it was filling, but delicious.

We had a moment of panic when we remembered that Turkey is a Muslim country, and they don’t drink alcohol. In spite of evidence to the contrary on this trip, we’re not big drinkers but we were looking forward to a cocktail with dinner. But not to worry as they have a full bar, so I had a lovely Sex on the Beach.

There’s a veranda attached to the restaurant, so we stepped out for just a moment to enjoy the view.

Now it’s just almost 7:30 and Peter is settling down for the night while I work on the blog. Tomorrow, we have an all-day city tour that will take us to Sultanahmet Square and the Grand Bazaar. Oh, Desiree, wait to you see that place. It’s amazing!

I’m not sure what we’re doing the rest of the week, but we’d like to do a cruise down the Bosphorus, and I’m already scheduled for a massage on Wednesday afternoon. Can’t wait! Night everyone.