Day 54 - 18th June. Leaving Crete->Istanbul, Turkey

We are off to day to Istanbul. Pepy has been lovely and said we can stay in our apartment until we leave at 2pm for a 5pm flight. We will fly back to Athens, then catch a connecting flight to Istanbul.

We will have to cover up clothing wise as are unsure about how you dress. Here it is shorts and singlets as it is so hot but have had conflicting info re Turkey.

Namely that you should cover up or you could get insulted and then the other extreme that it is different from other Muslim countries and is relaxed and modern and the less you wear, the less you pay for goods??!!!

Everything is on a bartering scale there so should be interesting.
We have a day tomorrow of city tours and then up to Gallipoli for a couple of days then back to Istanbul before coming home.
CYA all soon :-)

Later……. Got our flight fine from Heraklion in Crete, back over to Athens. But geez that airport is a shambles. Stinks real bad as everyone smokes in the waiting area and no ventilation and we tried 4 times to find the place to get a tax refund stamp- Gray was directed by a customs guy over to an office, which was empty, then when he went back to speak to the man again, he had run away!! We were told to go various places both land and air side and ended up directed to a airport police office. The Greek that was running that was an absolute pig, his breath stunk of alcohol and when we explained that we had already tried what he told us to do, he eyeballed me big time and just repeated to do it again through gritted teeth . Graeme said it is the first time he has felt like hitting someone, but I knew you couldn’t win with him, so just eyeballed him back silently!!

Got to Athens late as the first flight was 20 mins late taking off, so we were racing to make the connecting flight to Istanbul. It was like a maze and we got slightly lost, then walked very quickly back the right way and through customs. Of course this time they wanted to go through my cabin bag which was chocka with presents!! It was all quite hilarious really! Luckily found the customs man who looked Graeme over very thoroughly?! Then stamped our tax refund – yay! Then Graeme had problems getting the cabin bag onto the plane as it was such a small cabin space they wouldn’t allow many of the carry-on’s. Gray started to see red as they let one guy on with a bigger bag while holding him back with ours – he just isnt pushy enough like them!! Then he had to fight at the other end to get it back as didn’t want all the fragile stuff going with the suitcases – he wanted to carry it!!! They did get it off for him in the end and we just made the bus to the terminal !! I just stood on the sidelines saying to relax, it would be ok!

The 2nd flight was on a tiny plane surprisingly and as fate would have it I was seated beside a Maori lady from Christchurch- Huia! It was great, we talked the whole way over on the 1 ½ hour flight! Geez I love our Kiwi sense of humour and light hearted approach to life! We stuck with her in the Ataturk airport as she was on her own, gave her the lonely planet info I had on accommodation as she hadn’t arranged anything and it was getting dark by this time.

Said goodbye to Huia, then through to our hotel transfer – OMG ! Have never seen a van that flash! Seffer, the driver was lovely and the padded leather seats and interior of this vehicle had it in the limo category- just missing the spa pool!
He is a real gentleman and took our bags as we left the airport when a short, round Turkish women slipped over in front of us , on what looked like a piece of cabbage?! He helped me to get her up, then she turned on Seffer and gave him an earful like he had thrown it there!!! It was a laugh.

It was so funny, he actually beat the Cretan taxi drivers record and drove over 130kms through the very crowded streets – I just put on my seatbelt and giggled nervously while looking the other way!! The drivers here are very impatient and quite aggressive, tooting at each other all the time. It is fine though when you don’t have to worry about driving- would never try it alone here with 15,000,000 people in this city alone!

Got to the hotel, and more quiet, well dressed Turkish men. They are very polite and respectful and love those long slim noses they all have - very regal looking!

Eventually got to bed at midnight – groan, and will be up at 6am for our tours tomorrow.