Once upon a time, I had a flight from Kenya to Ethiopia to Turkey to Ukraine. Except that the flight from Ethiopia to Istanbul was delayed… Really badly delayed. We boarded around 3 hours late, and then sat on the runway for another 3 hours because of a rainstorm. Long story short, by the time I arrived in Istanbul, my flight to Ukraine had already left.

Feeling a little stressed about the situation, but hopeful that I’d possibly get a day in Istanbul, I went to the Turkish Airlines customer service desk and explained my situation. Before I could even get through my explanation, they referred me to another desk… A special desk. The BUSINESS CLASS desk. Woah.

I had booked my ticket using miles and decided to treat myself to first class since it was only a few miles more. Well, my friends, it DEFINITELY paid off.

The people at the business class desk were SO helpful. They exchanged my ticket for a new flight at 6pm (it was currently 9am), pointed me towards me customs, and instructed me to visit the Turkish Airlines Hotel Desk on “the other side” after going through immigration.

I assumed I’d end up with one of those airport-location hotels for the day. I wondered how I’d get to the city… I tried to plan it out in my head… But, it was still better than nothing –> that’s for sure!

The guy at the desk worked his magic and gave me some papers and told me to wait for a special van with several other passengers. It seemed there were other people who hadn’t quite made the Ukraine flight –> several were speaking Russian.

We hopped in the van and get onto a highway. Immediately, I was in awe of the city’s beauty… I ccould see the ocean along one side of the highway with parks lining it. The opposite side was lined with what looked like old castle/fortress walls. Wow. I might have had my mouth open, quietly gasping “woahhh!” to myself as we drove along. 30 minutes later, we reached our destination in the middle of town.

I was shocked. Shocked because I had expected something in the corner of the airport. This was in the middle of the city!

I walked into the hotel. A luxurious hotel. They had a spa… If you were wondering, I don’t normally stay at places so nice to have a spa inside.

Before I got to the front desk, I had a small freakout. “Ohhh man, I should have double checked that this was complementary,” I thought to myself, “Because I cannot afford this otherwise. I mean, I CAN, but I my budget can’t, and my pocket can’t really either.”

Well, I was relieved and rejuvenated to find that it WAS totally complementary! They sent me to a room on the 7th floor. My view of the ocean and the city was AMAZING.

I took the first western-style, clean, fully functional shower that I’d had in nearly 4 weeks. It was AMAZING. I felt CLEAN. Finally! I’d forgotten that feeling.

I took a short nap and then ventured out on the streets.

 First, I grabbed lunch at the first local restaurant I could find. Everything looked delicious. And it WAS.

After eating, I wandered around with my free tiny map from the hotel and tried to get to the ocean seawall I’d seen on the drive… I knew it was close. Alas, I finally made it.

 I wasn’t sure how I’d feel walking around alone there. But I remembered my aunt talking about how she had visited once with my uncle and spent her days venturing around while he was in business meetings. [I generally don’t fear for my safety, but I had just come from India and Kenya where I stuck out like a sore thumb, where women aren’t exactly known to be treasured as princesses. Besides that, there was a situation where a creep grabbed me in India, so I was definitely on the wary side.]  Besides that, I knew I wasn’t in too shady of an area, because I’d seen pictures from a friend who’d recently visited and I knew I was in an area at least close to where he’d taken some of the pictures…

But it ended up being quite nice. I didn’t have any expectations of Istanbul, but I was thoroughly impressed. I would absolutely go back and visit… People were just hanging out along the bay?coast? Others were reading in the park. Others were relaxing with friends. It was so refreshing. The weather was not too hot but not too cold.

I had a wonderful stroll along the way until some young guys started making cat calls at me, and shouting in broken accents, “hey baby, wanna have sex?” and then making dramatic thrusting movements. I decided it was time to get off this walkway and go somewhere more crowded and less creep-filled.

So, I decided to make my way towards the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque.

I got a little lost, but it was such a nice walk, I didn’t even mind.

When I finally made it to the Hagia Sofia, I found all my fellow white people. I actually felt less safe… Now I DEFINITELY had to guard my money.

I did a little ‘window’ shopping in a nearby bazaar. I stopped and tried some Turkish delight and also had a glass of tea. My favorite 🙂

The only thing I regretted was having to experience the city with zero knowledge of it or its culture. I’m horrible at being a tourist. I’m so used to being with natives and having their invaluable knowledge. But anyway, I was just excited to be there…

The Blue Mosque was awesome. And also free! I couldn’t remember too much about it, but I remembered studying it in one of my architecture classes in college and wanting to visit someday. Here I was! And all because of a missed flight!

Google it if you haven’t heard of it. The inside was equally impressive…