Istanbul

Istanbul was over a month ago, so unfortunately I've lost all of the intricate detail you would expect from my blog posts as nearly everything, important or not, is wiped from my memory about twice a month. Its a blessing and a curse.
Anyway, Istanbul was a surprisingly impressive city. I didn't know quite what to expect, I figured it could go either way, but I had braced myself for more of the "middle east, oppressive, old and dirty" sort of vibe. I was dead wrong. Istanbul is sparklingly clean, the old monuments that are around the city are all surrounded in beautiful parks and controlled areas, and the rest of the city, particularly the area called 'the new city' is new, European, and super cosmopolitan. I stayed at the W Hotel and it was an amazing hotel. Getting to Istanbul was rough, though. As I was squeezing the trip into a weekend, I picked the flight that red-eyed on Friday, getting me in early morning, and returned Sunday night to maximize the time in Turkey. Unfortunately, that was an Air India flight, connecting in Delhi. Connecting in Delhi is bad news, since the Delhi domestic and Delhi international airports are different airports and quite a ways away from one another, and there is no concept of "checking through" to an international destination here in India. If you have a stop in another Indian city, you have to collect your bag, leave the airport, go to the international terminal (or separate airport in the case), go back through, re-check in, then go through immigration. Sucks. Air India also sucks. I don't normally fly anywhere economy class anymore (I know, tough life), but that was all both of the flights had to offer - no business or first. And, man, Air India economy class is the real deal. Hot, crowded, smelly, loud. I wouldn't bat an eyelash if I saw a chicken run down the aisle. And I also miscalculated how far Istanbul was away (timezones are hard), so the Delhi->Istanbul flight was about 9 hours. I'm not a very tall American, but I'm a very, very tall India, so they put the seat rows much closer together on economy flights. I had the pleasure of sitting in the first row against the toilet, so my knees were jammed against the toilet wall for the whole flight. Horrible. Poor me.
Anyway, Istanbul. First thing I did, since I live in a place where basic necessities like expensive French soaps, Starbucks coffee, designer label clothes, and PS3/Xbox360 games are unavailable, is jump in a cab and asked to be taken to the biggest and best mall. Istanbul lesson number one immediately followed: don't take Istanbul taxis. They drive horribly, and they are all crooks. There is a button on the meter that at some point when they think you aren't looking they press and it adds 20 Turkish Lira to the tab. Shady shit.
The mall, which happens to be the biggest in Europe, met all of my soap/clothes/Starbucks/gaming needs, but lesson number two of Istanbul was quickly learned: Istanbul is fucking expensive. I thought I was doing the Turkish Lira to dollar math wrong and kept rechecking, but, no, my math was right. Everything is about double the price you would expect, kind of like London. No wonder their switch to the Euro is tough, their Lira has a much stronger exchange right now than the Euro.
I went to a movie at the mall as well, it was a nice theater, equivalent but not surpassing what you would expect of a theater in the States. I saw Clooney's "The American", which is called "The Gentlemen" for international markets. Contrary to critical and cine-score results, I loved it.
Day two was touring the city seeing all of the historical sites: the blue mosque, the hagia sophia, etc. The buildings are astounding. Enormous to the point of dwarfing the Taj Mahal, beautiful, and maintained to perfection (unlike the Taj Mahal, I found no Sharpie graffiti adorning the walls, proudly marking that "Rahul was here").
The weather was beautiful, like 20C the whole time. Saturday night I had dinner at a nuevo-Japanese restaurant on the banks of the black sea. Very expensive, but perfectly executed experience.
The city isn't particularly English language friendly (no second line on all the signs in English like most of the world now has), but the Turkish language shares enough similaries that you figure out the gist of what something says (unlike Tokyo or Stockholm).
As I was heading back to the airport to return home, a huge thunderstorm erupted and delayed all flights out. My flight back to Delhi was delayed almost 6 hours, so I missed my connecting flight from Delhi to Bangalore. I was then gifted the lovely surprise that Air India doesn't give a shit that their connecting flight being delayed is what causes you to miss your second flight. After a couple hours of arguing with various disinterested persons I was forced to re-purchase another flight back to Bangalore. Needless to say, I have retired from Air India, regardless of whether the timing is better or not.

Link to my flickr set of Istanbul

While this dog was roaming a foot traffic street unattended, clearly she had a home full of bellyrubs and cheeseburgers to go back to each evening.

This is not the Black Sea (as it doesn't look black), its the Sea of Marmara, on the other side of town.



Beward this ferocious pride of wild kitties in the old city, they aren't messing around.