Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Today we’re off to the Stans! Not until 8:20pm, though, so we still had a full day in Istanbul.

Had breakfast (which wasn’t as good as we remembered...maybe it’s just average after all the great breakfasts at our hotel in Luxor). Then packed up for our next leg in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The weather forecast while we’re there ranges from highs of 27C and lows of 11C, so we had to pack most of our stuff.

The forecast today in Istanbul called for constant rain until 4pm, which was the time we had planned to leave for the airport, so decided to just explore our local neighbourhood (we’re staying in Beyoğlu). Walked around randomly, saw a busy little bakery with great looking sandwiches. Walked around some more and then tried to find the bakery again for lunch. Fortunately, Heather remembered where it was. We just had bagels and cheese, but they were delicious.

Picked an atmospheric coffee shop (there’s more here than in Leslieville) and had a Turkish coffee and a truffle. Both were excellent.

Wandered around some more. Walked by an art studio and loved the paintings in the window. While we were trying to drop a pin in Google maps so we could find it again, the artist opened the door and invited us in to look around. He was really nice (I think he liked that Heather made quick friends with one of his cats). We didn’t want to ask him about prices, but he gave us his card and suggested we visit his small gallery close by where he had additional paintings.

So we walked over to check out the gallery. The person working there seemed rather impressed that we had met the artist. At the risk of ‘if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it’, we asked about prices, and it’s within what we would want to spend. Phew. So we’ll drop by again on our last stay in Istanbul.

It was only 2pm, and too early to just go back to the hotel to hang out, plus it had stopped raining, so walked towards Taksim Square. It was very lively with hundreds of people out and about. The chestnut cart vendors are very artistic with their displays, with each roasted chestnut carefully propped up in a half-shell. Watched the shawarma folks slicing away with their long knives. I was still full from lunch but was getting hungry looking at all the food options.

There’s a very busy pedestrian street leading out from Taksim Square, so we walked down part of the way. Lots of brand names and many famous Turkish delight stores. The pedestrian area does about a 2km half-loop around our hotel. We tried to walk the full length but black clouds rolled in and it started raining again, so we took a short cut back to our hotel.

There was another person at our hotel waiting to go to the airport at about the same time as us, so we asked if she wanted to split a taxi. She was leaving at 3:30pm, and we were fine with leaving early and checking out the new airport. It turned out she was also Canadian (from Montreal) but was working in Dubai and just finished a 10 day stay in Istanbul. She and Heather had a great conversation; I was in the front passenger seat and couldn’t hear without my Whisper 2000.

An aside: Heather and I have an inside running joke about the Cobus 3000. That’s the most common brand of bus used at airports to take passengers between the plane and the airport. I just find it funny because the brand is so prominently displayed on the bus, which I don’t get. It’s not like there’s a bunch of procurement folk seeing the buses thinking, hey, that’s the bus I want to buy for my airport! The Cobus 3000. Watch for it next time you fly.

Anyways, arrived at the brand new airport. Got through the initial entry screening and into departures. Checked in. We had four hours until our flight, so started at one end and explored the airport. According to our iPhones we walked 2.2km seeing the place. Checked out the dinner places. Had chicken shawarma, which was the real thing! They had a real oven to roast the meat and a real kiln to make their breads fresh onsite (I’m sure I have all the terminology wrong, but you get the idea). They had all the traditional desserts available, too, again, all of them made fresh onsite. There were little placards with explanations of each of the foods and their historical and cultural significance, cool. It’s a great way to promote the country.

Bought 6 x 500ml water (we’re arriving at 2am and didn’t want to be short water overnight in Ashgabat) and headed over to our gate.

We boarded the plane and then realized there was a mix up with our assigned seats. The plane had been switched and my seat, 6A, no longer existed. Apparently, I had been reassigned to 10B or something, but my eticket hadn’t got the news. Anyway we ended up sitting together in row 7. The guys beside us said it’s key to be sitting up close to the front, to get to immigration first. We’ll see what happens!