After a 12 hour and 28 minute flight on Turkish Airlines a tired me arrived in Istanbul. The last few minutes of the flight I was asking myself what’s the worst thing that can happen when I land. I decided the worst thing would be if the hotel had not sent the driver for me since I didn’t know how to get to the hotel by public transportation.

Guess what after paying €20 for an entry visa because of my  American passport no driver from the hotel was waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. I didn’t want to make a roaming phone call on my T-Mobile anywhere phone at $2.69 a minute, and I couldn’t figure out how to use public phones I found.  Finally stressed to my limit I spied a cafe bar that luckily did have wifi. The wifi enabled me to use my google voice number to call the hotel. The fun continued when the hotel clerk said there was no record of my reservation but perhaps my reservation was with another hotel with a similar name.

Armed with the phone number of the other hotel that the clerk had given me I called what was the  correct hotel. Rather than send a driver this clerk suggested I take a taxi from the airport instead. I think I got 1 of the last honest taxi drivers in Instanbul who didn’t know the part of town where my hotel was.

Anyway here are some photos taken from the window of my room in hotel #2 (Adrien Basilica Hotel). The first is the Hagia Sophia, I think.

The next is another view from another window:

I could also see a cruise ship docked in the Bosporus with what I later learned was Asian Istanbul in the background.

The last view is of the rather far away Topkapi Palace:

These pictures and many more can be found here.