Turkey - From Konya back to Istanbul

This was my last morning in Konya. I was a bit sad that I didn’t go walking the night before, but I was too exhausted. I started packing, and got down to breakfast a bit late. I didn’t really feel like eating soup, which I had chosen the morning before. Very nice, but I just wanted some pancakes, which I got. I again took my coffee up to my room, to drink once it cooled. I packed, but was still a bit tired. Frankly, I never slept well. I kept waking up, tossing and turning. Couldn’t decide why, but something kept me uncomfortable. I hoped for a nice sleep in the new hotel that night.

We returned to the airport. It was hard to find the place to enter from the rented cars park. None of the doors opened from the ground floor. Then we discovered we had to take the outside elevator upstairs. It smelled strongly of cigarettes. Upstairs, we could enter, and had to go through the first line of checks. This made me a bit worried, as my boss had a toolbox that he put into my bag, because he was afraid of being over the weight limit. We brought it as a sample. So when they put our luggages through the X-ray, of course they made us open my suitcase. I had my boss take care of that, as at the time they were making me start my laptop. It’s a new thing they do. You have to unpack the major electronic devices and start them. After me there was a woman, who had a big photography case. She had to open that too. When she opened it up, it was full of equipment. I was a bit envious of her. I told her she had quite the set-up. She replied that photography is a serious hobby for her. I told her I loved it too, but I didn’t have the strength to carry such things around. That’s actually because I have a waist problem and sometimes it gets painful even with my tiny camera. So she motioned towards my boss and asked why I didn’t have him carry it. I had to inform her that that’s my boss, and I’m more likely to carry his stuff. I do sometimes, actually.

Meanwhile, he was having his own little adventure with the officer who was checking my suitcase. He examined the toolbox, but kept rummaging around. Then the officer asked if it was my boss’ luggage. He replied that no, and gestured towards me that it was mine. The officer quickly abandoned his search. I guess it’s a good thing I always pack my underwear in a separate bag.

We had to wait a bit to check in. There weren’t a lot of people around. An interesting couple of people were dressed like they were from Nepal. They even had warm hats on. It was quite warm, so I didn’t get why.

We checked in, and passed through security. There was no line, as there was barely anyone around. So I put my backpack through, took out my laptop, but not the other stuff. Seriously, if I took out all my electronics, it would take a year. When my bag went through, the officer stopped me. He started talking about something metal being in my bag. I had lots of metal in my bag, so I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. A female officer joined us. So the guy kept pointing to a part of my bag. I pulled out my massage gloves. They are plastic, with metal balls to use for a stronger massage. He stared at it, and asked what it was. The woman knew it right away. He said something about not keeping it in my carry-on. Actually, I’ve been travelling with it there since I got it in Aveiro the year before. I keep it there in case I need my circulation helped along on the plane.

So we sat down, then got some food at the only little bufe in the domestic departures. I also used the cleanest toilet I have ever seen in an airport. As I was eating, I could hear fighter jets. Then they appeared in front of the tall windows that overlooked the runway. It was the Turkish air force practicing. Konya has a massive airbase. It was the coolest thing ever! There was an airshow right in front of me. They did loops and turns, formations and solos. They were still doing it as we went outside to board the plane. When some would pass overhead, everyone stopped and just watched them.

The plane set off towards the take-off part of the runway. And kept going. And going. It was taxiing so much, I wondered if we were going to go to Istanbul on the ground. When it reached the furthest strip from the airport, it finally took off. It felt like forever. The flight itself was fine, quite uneventful. Got the usual sandwich. We arrived to Istanbul, and flew right passed it. Then I understood that we were going to take the landing passage that came from the sea. The year before we stayed at a hotel right under that landing passage. Wonderful hotel, unbelievably noisy. At night you could see a daisy-chain of plane lights that were in line to land on Atatürk Airport. When we finally landed, there was a lot of taxiing again to finally park. I swear I spent more time on the ground in that plane, than in the air.

It was quite strange to land in Istanbul and not have to go through all the security checks. As we were waiting for the luggages, many women came in full niqab, only their eyes visible. Their men were dressed like any other guy, jeans, red trainers. It looked like such a contrast. I felt a bit weird standing next to them in Western clothing. Frankly, I also felt a bit sorry for them that they felt that’s what they had to do in their lives, and all the limitations they had. But it’s not my place to judge, only to observe.

After we picked up our bags, we searched for the Miles & Smiles stand which is the Turkish Airlines benefit program. We’ve been having a problem with signing up, but it turned out that we both had functioning accounts. He didn’t know about it, I couldn’t sign into mine. Somehow getting a card printed fixed both which I found out once I got to the internet.

We picked up our car and headed to the hotel. We stayed at the Hampton by Hilton Zeytinburnu. When we got to the hotel and told them about the requests we wrote down in advance, they seemed a bit frazzled. Obviously, they don’t do room allocations in advance. So I ended up with a room on the ground floor, furthest from reception. At least I got a workout every time.

I really liked the room. It had a lot of green, which is my favourite colour. It was also very clean and modern, which is just my taste. The previous room was bigger, but for some reason I liked this room better. I guess it just felt more like something that I would do.

Review:

Comfortable atmosphere

This hotel is very well situated. It’s relatively close to the historical centre, and also on the outskirts of the Zeytinburnu district with all the shops. There is also a train going behind it to the centre and also to the ferry port. However, the train can get loud in the room towards the end of the hotel.
The staff is very nice and friendly. There is a pantry by the reception and quite a large bar area. In case you need conference rooms, they have those as well. There is also a small gym in the basement and that’s where you can go to the underground garage.
The room is nice, though a bit smaller. However, I really liked the atmosphere of the room, it felt comfortable and relaxing. The TV mainly has Turkish channels. There are a good amount of plugs, but no wired internet. Wifi works well though. The bathroom has a large shower and a good amount of counter space. Do check out my video on my YouTube channel, Izzy’s Travel Diaries for more details.
Breakfast is nice, though relatively smaller than what I’m used to in Turkey. They had a large amount of people, and quickly ran out of everything. I often used cereal bowls for soup.
Overall, nice, comfortable hotel. I had very good sleeps on the bed, maybe a bit too good as it was hard to drag myself down to breakfast. Especially, because it was often so crowded. I wish I could have packed up my breakfast and taken it on a tray to my room. I did take my coffee.

After a bit of rest we headed to the Olivium for dinner, and then a bit of shopping. 

I was very happy to fall into my bed, and had the best sleep since I got to Turkey. Very comfortable bed.