Today was one of the better transit days on this trip. Our flight was at 11am, so we could wake up at a reasonable time. The hotel staff was really nice, starting breakfast a bit early so we could eat before grabbing our taxi to the airport. The breakfast was excellent too!
Technically, this was a domestic flight, but it was a bit like flying from Hong Kong to Beijing. Still had to go through customs and immigration on both ends. The flight left 15 minutes early (I guess everyone was there, so they took off).
We flew into the old domestic airport in Istanbul, which was showing its age. It’s about an hour east of the city centre, on the Asian side of Istanbul.
The hotel owner came out to greet us warmly as our taxi pulled up. (This is our 4th stay at the Hotel Hamamhane so far). He really makes the hotel feel like home. He even gave us laundry pods for the washer in our room!
We put in a quick load of laundry and went for lunch next door. Had to wait a couple minutes for a table and then got seated. Lunch was really nice outside on the patio. Made reservations for dinner there as it was a Saturday; we didn’t want to venture too far as we had an early start the next day.
It was still early afternoon, so decided to walk into the historical centre, just to get some exercise. The streets were packed with people, it definitely felt like a city of 20 million!
Got back home, showered, and finished our laundry. The hotel has a happy hour on the weekend, so went down for a drink and small snacks before dinner.
Went back to the same restaurant for dinner. It was okay, but think we’ll start branching out more when we get back to Istanbul and have more time at the end of our trip.
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