Wednesday, July 4, 2018

March 9th, 2018 Istanbul, Turkey

8PM We arrived at Istanbul. With 9 hours of layover, I really struggled with whether I should go into town or not, given I was likely just going to eat some kofta. After sitting in the lounge for 20 minutes and recognizing my trip to Albania only has a few hours of layover at Istanbul, I decided to go for it. I met a young Russian couple on my way.

9:50PM The most famous Turkish boathouse didn't let me in even though I arrived 10 minutes before they closed, citing that their bath personnel actually leave at 10PM. Their rate was 55 EUR for just 30 minutes. I went to Hamam Hizmeti for 125 TRLs. It was basically a big steam room. I almost skipped out on the service part without realizing. A guy scrubbed me with some kind of coarse glove and then rubbed with bubbles. He then poured hot water over me for the next 30 seconds. I got dressed right away after. I gave the guy a tip of 1 USD and 1.25 TRLs. I then bought a kefta from Sultanahmet Koftesi for 18 TRLs. I have the homeless woman with 2 babies my bread. I then left to catch the train back to the airport. I found out I caught the last train to the airport. I stayed at the HSBC lounge until last call for Mauritius.

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