Day 7 Istanbul

Istanbul What day is it? Hmm, I think I got here on Day 7, Sunday the 15th. I arrived on Royal Jordanian, a flight that miraculously left on time, as most RJ flights seem to do. I say "miraculously" because the airport in Amman is, um, interesting. You can't get in to the check-in counter until a set time before your flight, usually an hour and a half or two hours at the most. Then you go through a preliminary baggage screening, go to the counter, get your boarding pass, go through immigration, and go upstairs to lounge about indolently, strolling through the Duty Free Shop looking at overpriced gee-gaws or gnawing on a Cinnabon. Eventually, they let you into the actual gate area, where you go through the final baggage screening and metal detectors, and all that stuff. A little cumbersome, but it works. What's really weird is that every boarding call is the last and final boarding call. These last and final boarding calls go on for an hour or more sometimes. It's as if they decided that passengers would not pay attention to anything unless there was some urgency to it. So you sit there listening to last and final boarding calls over and over and over. But, the planes leave on time, so they must know something. I arrived in Istanbul (apparently, the city's official name didn't get changed until 1930; before that it was called whatever you wanted I guess) to find Ataturk International Airport spotless, modern, and mostly empty. Immigration was easy; the entry fee of $20 was one third what Canadians had to pay--what did they do to piss them off here? Customs consisted of a guy waving me through saying "welcome to Turkey." Which is fine as I had nothing to declare--one of the benefits of being unable to buy much. The Hotel Dersaadet had a driver for me, as promised, and though nearly completely silent he did a fine job getting me to my hotel. It's in the Sultanahmet district, where the historical stuff is, like the Blue Mosque, Ayasofya, the Topkapi Palace, that sort of thing, along with a bunch of museums. I can definitely recommend the hotel; it's nice, pretty, authentically Ottoman, comfortable, and friendly. The AC works well too, which you will be grateful for, as the temperature in June is largely near 90 and super humid every day. Clouds, occasionally; rain, not that I saw. The views from the hotel roof top cafe are nice; you can see the mosque and the Sea of Marmara very well. An endless parade of container ships chugs up the Bosporus towards the Black Sea and back again, which is kind of interesting. Also interesting is the contrast between this place and Amman. In addition to the water, this is definitely much, much more Western, even if it is sort of an Eastern European version of Western. Its a secular state, so the call to prayer overlays the bustle and thump of nightclubs and cafes, and you see very few people in full head and face coverings. Oh, the cars are nicer and the roads better too, as you'd expect from a wealthier nation. Pictures: 1. Flag and minarets. You can see the balance of Turkey here--nation first, religion second. 2. Ayasofya, or how to recycle a big Byzantine church. 3. Sultanahmet Mosque. 4. A ship sailing from Byzantium.