Moving Day - Izmir to Istanbul - A Very Damp Start, A Bit of Stress, and a Lovely End

It’s a nice change to stay in a hotel room and be able to go down and enjoy a “free” breakfast. We were the only ones there at 8 a.m. A nice selection, but not many hot options. Three cups of coffee is a good way to start any day! ☕☕☕

The frustration and grumpiness paid dividends today. We had a short but very wet walk to the train station, 150m away. It was pouring with rain, and there had been lightning and thunder earlier. The tricky bit was crossing the traffic, but we managed to time that perfectly to minimize our time in the rain. Still, we got quite soaked without raincoats on. It wasn’t worth the hassle of getting them out and then packing them away again wet.

We purchased the train tickets after once more checking with the attendant that the train actually stopped at the airport. We think he confirmed it did.

The train was already at the platform, so we could board and sit in relative comfort—damp-feeling comfort.

It was reassuring when the train left exactly on time at 10:35 a.m. Our flight isn’t until 3 p.m., but we prefer to get there early and read our books near the boarding gate.

The train only stopped once and then stopped at the airport station. Phew. All good. A short walk along the platform without any rain, and we ascended to the airport departure level. Two security checks later, we could sit, relax, and wait.

The waiting passed pretty quickly, and we boarded on time at 2:30 p.m. for our 3 p.m. flight. We were flying Turkish Airlines, which in my dark memories has a chequered safety record. Their recent record, though, sounded better than the other two budget airline options. We were going to bus or train all the way to Istanbul but decided to have the rest week instead and then fly. The first option of flying was no more expensive than the overland options. The flights were only $187 NZD for a 1.5-hour flight. The budget airlines were around $100, but when I Googled one of them, I found they’d had a crash that killed people back in 2020 on exactly the same flight—Izmir to Istanbul. Bad weather was blamed. Anyway, it was a no-brainer to book the main Turkish airline.

The plane was a new-looking 737-800 with a very modern interior and an entertainment system built into the seats. We even got served coffee and a bread roll with turkey, cheese, and tomato—especially nice given we had skipped lunch.

It was light as we flew into Istanbul, and there was a bit of a view of the countryside. I saw one large mosque with six minarets! The Istanbul airport was understandably massive, with lots of travelators to speed the walk up. We found the shuttle bus area and knew in advance that we needed to buy an Istanbul Card to pay for it and the metro during the week. We found the place to buy the card and handed over 500 lira for that and some credit.

The Citymapper app was telling us it was 170 lira each for the shuttle. We found what we thought was the right bus—there were many to choose from. We hopped on and the driver scanned our card. He went to scan it a second time, but the price was 355 lira, so we didn’t have enough credit. Feck! So we hopped off again, and another man tried to help us. No one spoke English. The bus drove off—minus us!

The man took us back to the ticket booth. They said we had to put more money on the card. We tried to explain that it was far more than we expected and thought they were trying to scam us. They said 170 lira was the price four years ago. What?! We said we had already scanned once and wanted our money credited back. They wouldn’t do that. Eventually, we agreed to pay more money. Then the other man took us to the bus so the driver knew we only needed to scan once. In that time, we figured out that the original bus wasn’t going where we wanted to go and, hopefully, instead we got on the right one. It was going to a place called Sultanahmet.

It was a long bus ride on a large three-lane motorway. It took at least an hour, as nearer the city we hit rush-hour traffic. I was sitting next to a young woman who turned out to be Russian. She was just here for one night and then was flying to Chicago tomorrow to run in the marathon there.

The bus dropped us off on a street right beside the famous Blue Mosque, also next to a small bazaar. It was just a 550m walk to our apartment.

The apartment host, Abuzer, was waiting outside for us. I had messaged him after getting off the bus. He and his wife, Nur, welcomed us into their living area with tea and food. You take your shoes off before going inside. The food was delicious, but I can’t remember what it was called—photo below. We were talking to them mainly using Google Translate, but Abuzer understands and speaks some English. He is a retired policeman, and she is a retired university secretary. They are a lovely, warm couple, and we are already loving Istanbul thanks to them.

After about an hour, another man arrived—Tony from England. He was visiting for a week from Manchester and was staying in the other apartment above ours. The house has three levels and is Nur’s family home, where she grew up. We chatted with the three of them for another hour. It was nearly 9 p.m. when we finally unpacked and went to bed. A tiring and stressful couple of travel days!