I have recently returned from a 4-week visit to Turkey, spending most of the time in the Capital Ankara, and three consecutive weekends in Istanbul.
I liked Ankara, for it was quiet and tourist-free, and the weather there was less humid and a bit cooler than Istanbul.
During the 1st weekend i spent in Istanbul, i followed the advice of a friend who went to Istanbul a couple of times earlier; who suggested that i stay in the Asian side of the city, where hotel and food prices are much cheaper, and he suggested the district of Üsküdar.
I went to Üsküdar, which doesn't really have that much hotels. The one i picked was a bit far from the seafront at some backstreet called "Tembel Haci Mehmet" and had an elementary school right across the road. The hotel's name was Yavuz.
Now before i went out, i made sure that i took the hotel card, and put it in the cellphone holder, so that i don't miss it (!)...
I took a 5 km walk to the ancient Haydarpaşa train station (the last train station of the Orient Express from the Asian side), in order to make my train reservation back to Ankara, and after making that, i took the ferry to the European side, where i went to different places, the last of which was a cinema on İstiklal Caddesi. I went out and took the metro back to the shore and i took the ferry back to Üsküdar.
I arrived there around 11pm, extremely tired... And then, i realized that i lost the road back to the hotel. It was getting rather late so shops were already closed except a couple of them who were getting ready to close. To add e-insult to e-injury, the battery of my GPS-enabled phone on which i stored the hotel location had died about an hour ago, so i was officially lost!
I went into a kebap restaurant, and asked them for directional help. Some thought the place was closer to the sea, and some thought that it was near the big mosque. I asked them if they had a cellphone charger, and then i would tell them where it is. Luckily, they had one, and after a couple of minutes, the phone was back on, and it located the hotel as some 500 metres away further inland.
One of the workers there said to me: "Listen, hop up behind me on my scooter, and i will get you there!". Now for some reason, the young man seemed trustworthy. Stories ran through my mind quickly about how tourists were robbed and all that jazz, but the idea of being able to re-trace him to the restaurant if bad things happened seemed rather encouraging. I thanked him in advance and said to him, "OK, but just FYI, i never rode one of these before!"
Vrooom it went through the main street in Üsküdar, as i was following on my GPS device, and three minutes later, we stopped before the hotel door. I thanked the young man again, and bid him farewell, and went into the hotel laughing at myself for this scooter ride and road-loss i had.
Now, after i went upstairs to the room, that was the time when i found the hotel card, right where i left it, in the cellphone pocket! Sometimes you miss things that you put right under your nose, don't you?!
This hotel card reminded me of something i heard a long time ago, about an Iraqi who went to Japan. He stayed at a good hotel, and there was a complimentary set of matches in his room with Japanese writings on it. He thought that the set of matches must have had the name of the hotel, so he put the matches in his pocket before he went out and about in Tokyo. By the end of the day, he wanted to go back to the hotel, but how? He decided to show the set of matches to a taxi driver, who nodded the famous Japanese respectful nod and they were on their way. Now, our Iraqi friend, like many Iraqis (including me), had a little sleep in the cab. The driver woke him up, and the place had a scenery different from that of the hotel area... But there was a sign in Japanese, with a line in English which made things a bit clearer to him...
"Fujiyama Match Factory"...
:)
I liked Ankara, for it was quiet and tourist-free, and the weather there was less humid and a bit cooler than Istanbul.
During the 1st weekend i spent in Istanbul, i followed the advice of a friend who went to Istanbul a couple of times earlier; who suggested that i stay in the Asian side of the city, where hotel and food prices are much cheaper, and he suggested the district of Üsküdar.
I went to Üsküdar, which doesn't really have that much hotels. The one i picked was a bit far from the seafront at some backstreet called "Tembel Haci Mehmet" and had an elementary school right across the road. The hotel's name was Yavuz.
Now before i went out, i made sure that i took the hotel card, and put it in the cellphone holder, so that i don't miss it (!)...
I took a 5 km walk to the ancient Haydarpaşa train station (the last train station of the Orient Express from the Asian side), in order to make my train reservation back to Ankara, and after making that, i took the ferry to the European side, where i went to different places, the last of which was a cinema on İstiklal Caddesi. I went out and took the metro back to the shore and i took the ferry back to Üsküdar.
I arrived there around 11pm, extremely tired... And then, i realized that i lost the road back to the hotel. It was getting rather late so shops were already closed except a couple of them who were getting ready to close. To add e-insult to e-injury, the battery of my GPS-enabled phone on which i stored the hotel location had died about an hour ago, so i was officially lost!
I went into a kebap restaurant, and asked them for directional help. Some thought the place was closer to the sea, and some thought that it was near the big mosque. I asked them if they had a cellphone charger, and then i would tell them where it is. Luckily, they had one, and after a couple of minutes, the phone was back on, and it located the hotel as some 500 metres away further inland.
One of the workers there said to me: "Listen, hop up behind me on my scooter, and i will get you there!". Now for some reason, the young man seemed trustworthy. Stories ran through my mind quickly about how tourists were robbed and all that jazz, but the idea of being able to re-trace him to the restaurant if bad things happened seemed rather encouraging. I thanked him in advance and said to him, "OK, but just FYI, i never rode one of these before!"
Vrooom it went through the main street in Üsküdar, as i was following on my GPS device, and three minutes later, we stopped before the hotel door. I thanked the young man again, and bid him farewell, and went into the hotel laughing at myself for this scooter ride and road-loss i had.
Now, after i went upstairs to the room, that was the time when i found the hotel card, right where i left it, in the cellphone pocket! Sometimes you miss things that you put right under your nose, don't you?!
This hotel card reminded me of something i heard a long time ago, about an Iraqi who went to Japan. He stayed at a good hotel, and there was a complimentary set of matches in his room with Japanese writings on it. He thought that the set of matches must have had the name of the hotel, so he put the matches in his pocket before he went out and about in Tokyo. By the end of the day, he wanted to go back to the hotel, but how? He decided to show the set of matches to a taxi driver, who nodded the famous Japanese respectful nod and they were on their way. Now, our Iraqi friend, like many Iraqis (including me), had a little sleep in the cab. The driver woke him up, and the place had a scenery different from that of the hotel area... But there was a sign in Japanese, with a line in English which made things a bit clearer to him...
"Fujiyama Match Factory"...
:)
