One week after I got back from my big vacation I was asked to go to Istanbul for work, which would be my first time in Turkey. I was excited about this, of course, but I would only be there for about 24 hours so I knew I wouldn't have much time to see anything.
The flight was direct on Turkish Airlines, and when I came out into the Istanbul airport I was immediately hit with a terrible stench of body odor that made me visibly gag involuntarily. I waited for my colleague and we found our pre-booked taxi. The traffic was terrible from the airport to the hotel, and the taxi was such a jerky driver that I was practically stomach sick by the time I got there. The hotel was fine, one of the chains, with a beautiful outdoor terrace overlooking the Bosphorus, the strait which runs through the middle of Istanbul and divides the city in two, with one side residing in Europe and the other side residing in Asia. I was bummed I didn't have more time there - I could have gone to Asia and back in an hour, just for the novelty of it.
We had a short walk around in the area near the hotel, which was full of touristy places selling cheap jewellery and other handmade goods, then had dinner at the hotel. We chose the terrace under the roof, which was lucky because right after we sat down the skies opened up and dumped a ridiculous amount of rain on the city for the next 4 hours.
The following morning we left early to allow plenty of time to get to the office, but it turned out to be much more difficult that we had imagined. My colleague had looked up the address on our company's public website and it wasn't too far away. We got in a taxi at 8:15, figuring it would take us 20 minutes, or 30 at the max, to get to the office which was listed as 5km away. It took the taxi closer to the 30 minute mark, and he dropped us off at the back of the building, so we had to ask directions and traipse completely through to the other side of the building, up two flights of stairs, out a door and in another.
When we finally got to the right place the front desk receptionists couldn't seem to understand what company we were with, but took our photo IDs, gave us building passes, and told us to go to the 6th floor. On the 6th floor we were greeted by another receptionist, who also had trouble understanding what company we wanted to see, until the moment of realization kicked in and she informed us that our company had moved 8 months ago and was no longer in this building. That meant our own company's website had the wrong address listed. For the last 8 months.
The receptionist kindly found the new address and wrote out directions in Turkish for us to give to the taxi we would have to find because it was about a 10 minute drive away, "under normal circumstances". We found a taxi relatively quickly, but the problem soon became evident that he had no idea where this place was. We literally stopped every 100 feet so he could ask someone on the street how to get there, and then when we finally arrived he shut the meter off quickly and then tried to charge me triple what I knew the meter had said. I refused to pay him that, but gave him a little more than what he deserved. The nerve of him to try that, when he didn't even know where he was going.
We arrived at the office an hour and a half after we set off from the hotel, but saw a lot more of Istanbul than we had originally expected. The meetings were fine, and a few short hours later I was back in a taxi going to the airport. This time it was really fast to get there and I arrived with hours to spare before my flight.
As you enter the Istanbul airport you are immediately forced to go through a metal detector, before you even get to checkin. This startled me, and made me remember that I was in a country that is not always peaceful. Then after checkin you go through security (again) in order to get to the gates, like at all airports.
Since I didn't get to see much of the city, I took photos of the food instead. Which was amazing.
