But I'll give you a condensed version of what we've been up to the last couple of days. It's all a bit of a blur!
We had been up late on Tuesday night, and when we got back to the hotel it was actually early Wednesday morning by the time we got to bed. But sleep didn't last long as a family with 3 small children moved into the room right beside us, and they had zero consideration for the fact that people might be trying to sleep at that hour. I got up and told them off, and that worked for a half an hour or so... long enough for me to get to sleep, but Ruth said they started up again later.
Very annoying. In hindsight, I should have called the front desk and let them look after it.
Due to Ramadan, we once again had room service breakfast and it arrived right on time at 9:00am.
We were supposed to exit our room by noon, by I had some computer work to do, and we still wanted to use the gym for another workout so I went down and asked about late checkout and they said it was no problem, we could keep the room until 2:00pm with no extra charge. Really pleased with the Ramada Encore in Kuwait City. They had also given us early checkin, also with no extra charge.
We checked out at 2:00pm, but left our bags at the front desk and went for a walk. We ended up at a very posh shopping mall that was virtually empty of customers. Very strange.
Two local men at the very posh mall.
Nobody around.
This shopping mall has an Aston Martin dealership inside the mall!
Some kind of weaving display.
Our flight was not scheduled to depart Kuwait City until 2:40am! Which meant we had to be at the airport by midnight or so, and we really didn't want to spend more money on a room. Also, we wanted to be able to take the local public bus to the airport, and we couldn't get anybody who could tell us what time the bus we needed to take would stop running.
And, there really wasn't anything else we wanted to do or see in the city. Plus, it was too hot out to be comfortable doing any more walking.
So we headed to the airport early.
Unfortunately Kuwait City airport is old and badly in need of modernization. But I guess they don't see it as a priority because they don't focus much on tourism. On the landside of the terminal, we could only find one small circular seating area that maybe held 8 people. There was also a small food court with seating, but that's for people actually buying food, which we did actually do. I had enough leftover Kuwaiti dinars to share a couple of small salads for dinner.
We played some backgammon, and people watched. But there wasn't much space to do any walking. Still, the time passed and around midnight it was time to check in for our flight. By this point, they had delayed our flight by 15 minutes... now departing at 2:55am.
Fortunately, we both managed to get some sleep on the plane. That doesn't normally happen, but I guess when you are tired enough, it does!
Sunrise as we begin our descent into Istanbul SAW.
Arrived Istanbul SAW exactly on time at 6:30am.
Turkiye is not a new country for us, and this is actually our fourth time coming here. And, they recently removed visa requirements for Canadian citizens so the immigration process was fast and free!
Istanbul has two major airports and we purposely chose a flight into SAW airport because it is closest to our friend Cheryl's place where we are dog sitting for a few days. And, it's easy to get from the airport to her place by getting on the M4 metro line subway that goes direct from SAW to Kadikoy ferry terminal. Then a short 15 minute walk from the station to her place.
Getting on the subway.
It was standing room only during most of the trip though. Glad we got a seat!
Cheryl was at work when we arrived, but she had left instructions for us to get the key. Gus the dog was there to say hi to us though!
Ruth made us some breakfast and a hot drink, then I had a nap for an hour. Not very long, because we were soon on the move again! We had made arrangements to meet up with two other nomad couples who just happened to be here in Istanbul and we had been invited to join them for lunch.
So we walked back to the ferry terminal and took the ferry to Karikoy.
It was a beautiful day in Istanbul!
With a high around 20C (68F), it was a perfect day in Istanbul. Compared to the baking hot weather we've had for much of the last four months, this is totally enjoyable to us!
Met up with Cristine and Tom (originally from Seattle) and Mary and Ken (originally from Michigan) and had some lunch with them. Ruth and I each had a salad.
Greek Salad.
240 lira ($7.50 USD, $10.15 CAD).
Ruth had a Season Salad.
220 lira ($6.90 USD, $9.30 CAD)
A bit pricey for Turkiye, because we know very well what fruits and vegetables cost here. But, it was good and it was a decent salad although Ruth said her lettuce had a few brown bits.
Of course most of the discussion centered around travel. Mary and Ken do a lot of house sitting and I think they've been on the go since 2016. Cristine and Tom are newer travelers though, I think about two years. Anyhow, lots to talk about between us.
So the bill comes, and we noticed that both our salads were double the price that was on the menu! So we call the guy over, and he says "well, we brought you the large one for four people". But there was no large or small on the menu. And only one price on the menu. I honestly think they were trying to rip us off and that we wouldn't notice. It was in a tourist area right near the water, and we now wonder how many other tourists they have done this to. The place gets overall good reviews, but they are about to receive one that is not so good!
Anyhow, of course we asked for a new bill, and finally received one.
Ken, Kevin, Ruth, Tom, Cristine, Mary.
We all headed our separate ways, although we will likely see Ken and Mary again as they are here for another couple of weeks. Tom and Cristine leave Istanbul on Friday.
We then headed back to Kadikoy on the ferry. Cheryl had invited us for a drink with her friends after she finished work, but we had a half an hour to kill so we went looking for a SIM card for the phone. However, apparently things have changed with regards to cheap cellular data here and it's now a lot more expensive than it used to be. The cheapest tourist SIM card we could find was 1,100 lira ($34 USD, $46.50 CAD), so we held off on that and I will do some more research.
Met up with Cheryl and her friends and had the first alcohol we've had since we left Thailand.
Ruth, Kevin, Gordon, Eminy, Cheryl.
Lots of laughs with them. Gordon is originally from Scotland, but has been living here in Istanbul for 30 years. Eminy had a Swedish mother, and a Turkish father and has been here ten years Cheryl is from our hometown of Ottawa, but has been living and working here in Istanbul for five years.
Back at the house, we got reacquainted with Gus.
He is a German shorthaired pointer. About 9 years old.
Fairly early to bed, and dropped off right away. Finally had a good nights sleep, but it might take two of those to totally feel caught up!
Now, gotta get out for a walk. Another gorgeous day in Istanbul!
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Samsung Galaxy Tablets are on sale!And in Canada...
Nice deal on an RV Backup Camera.
Like how you, Kevin are always on the ball with prices. Good for pointing out restaurant pricey , rip off of tourists. smh
ReplyDeleteBecause we keep track of our expenses, we are always aware of how much our meals should be and when the bill came and we had to split the bill up as everyone's meal was on the one bill be couldn't find our prices and that is when we became aware that the salad prices were doubled. It is frustrating when that happens and it really leaves a bad taste in your mouth. We definitely will not be going going back to that restaurant again!
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