We arrived by taxi at our adorable hotel - an historical wooden house in the oldest section of Istanbul - but needed to wait a bit for our room to be ready. We sat outside on the rooftop deck, where breakfast will be served tomorrow morning, and enjoyed the lovely view and the pleasant steady breeze off the Bosporus. Around 2pm we were taken to our room, #401 on the second floor (this caused a bit of confusion later when we got in the tiny elevator and tried to figure out which floor to go to). We decided that the best remedy for jet lag (both of us felt pretty good however at this point) was to walk around in the sun for as long as we could. My objective was to try to get a handle on the layout of the Sultanahmet section of Istanbul (our neighborhood) and the orientation of various monuments including the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. We also wanted to locate a few favorite spots that we'd visited with the SFWG on our textile trip two years ago, including Cocoon and Memhet Chetinkaya (I'm using the phonetic spelling).
The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm today; the perfect temperature for walking. Almost immediately after we turned right from the front door of the hotel, we passed Cocoon. And just before we reached the entrance to the Arasta Bazaar I paused and said to Scott, Chetinkaya is over there and I was right. He has been teasing me about it ever since. I'm not usually so good with locating. We stopped in and met Chetinkaya once again. He told about his success exhibiting at July's Folk Art Market in Santa Fe. He showed hats that he's making now (lovely things) in Armenia. We promised to return with Larry & Renee in the next couple of days.
We continued on through the Arasta Bazaar, up to Hagia Sophia, down through the Hippodrome and around back to the hotel by 4.
At 6 we met L&R for a drink at the roof terrace. We'd made a dinner reservation at 7 at Balikci Sabahattin (www.balikcisabahattin.com) which is a ten minute walk from the hotel. We sat outside in the courtyard with colorful lights hanging overhead. I confess that by 8pm my head got pretty fuzzy and the thought of a pillow sounded pretty good. Haven't fully developed our agenda for tomorrow, but that's the fun of being on your own for a few days and having the ability to do whatever you want.
Note re our hotel:
HOTEL DERSAADET ISTANBUL
Kucukayasofya Cad. Kapiagasi Sok.
No:5 34400 Sultanahmet
Istanbul - TURKEYwww.hoteldersaadet.com
admin@hoteldersaadet.com
Tel: 90 212 458 07 60
Fax:90 212 518 49 18
Kucukayasofya Cad. Kapiagasi Sok.
No:5 34400 Sultanahmet
Istanbul - TURKEYwww.hoteldersaadet.com
admin@hoteldersaadet.com
Tel: 90 212 458 07 60
Fax:90 212 518 49 18
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