10:57 am -- Got into Istanbul last night without a hitch, thanks to the few hours spent googling the roads and public trans system before I left. As planned (the word being used loosely here), I stepped off the plane with my big baby-blue backpack in tow, got on the Metro from the airport, transferred to the tram, got off at Sultanahmet (see map), and walked the rest of the way to my hostel.
The place I'm staying at is called, ordinarily enough, Istanbul Hostel. It's one of the major mentions in Lonely Planet books or on hostels.com, so it's fairly popular. I've never stayed in a hostel before, so I'm going to admit to enjoying the element of novelty here, but even notwithstanding that, I'm pretty happy with this place so far. It's basically like living in a more crowded version of a freshman year dorm. There are 9 beds to the room I'm in, bathrooms are shared, and beds are clean. The guy who checked me in, Emre, was friendly and helpful, and internet access and breakfast are included in the price (not that I'm going to get much use out of the internet here). Breakfast is a small portion of cucumber, tomato, olives, beyaz peynir ("white cheese," like feta), bread, butter, jam, and tea/instant coffee. From what I'm told, it's pretty representative of traditional Turkish breakfasts. The view from the roof is quite fine too, and you can see all the way across the water to the Asian side of the city. More than satisfactory for about $14.Or 20 lira, which is how I should be thinking about it now. I've stuffed my wallet with some Turkish lira (TL) for the days ahead, and made a mental note of the exchange rate: about 3 TL to every 2 USD. Good to go.
So after dropping off my stuff in my room last night, I just wandered for a while around Sultanahmet, but I left a lot of sightseeing for later, since we'll probably be doing that as a group once everyone's here. It's like a carnival here at night -- because it's still Ramadan, I think, or because Eid is coming up. There are lots of food stalls and cafes that look worth trying, but it's impossible to sample all of them in one night, so I munched some 1 TL salted cob corn. Also, tried a cup of boza: it's a thick, slightly sour, slightly sweet drink mixed with cinnamon and leblebi, which I later found out were roasted chickpeas. I didn't do much else except relax on a park bench and take in all the lights and sights around me. No pressure to do anything -- definitely a welcome change of pace.I got back to the hostel and passed out on my bed, in day clothes, not later than 11, probably because of the little sleep I'd gotten the night before. I slept all right until the morning, though, and here I am now, showered, fed, and awake. Just waiting on everyone else's plane to arrive.
