Made it safely to Istanbul. Left Cape Town at 16:30 and arrived in Istanbul at 4:30 this morning - South Africa's on the same timeline as Turkey, so all in all it was quit a distance to fly. :D
I'm a bit sad that we did it overnight, as we flew in a straight line (well pretty straight) from Johannesburg over Africa, Egypt onto Istanbul. Would've been an amazing view, I'm sure.
I also love the new technology on the planes - okay, maybe I'm showing off how little I travel overseas here - but they've got these cameras pointing to below the plane. So, for all those who sit in the middle, you can still see what's happening below the plane. Especially awesome to see the runway come up! :)
At the airport it was quite hectic. After all the commotion of trying to figure out whether South Africans can get a visa at the airport, I found out at the airport that.......wait for it............South Africa is exempt from needing a visa. Made me nervous, but I got in the Passport Control 1 line. Waited my turn - plus minus 10 mins - and then got told to go to Passport Control 2.
Passport Control 2 was on the oooooottthhhhheeeer side of the airport. Me and 4 other South Africans were the only ones in line. So that went really quick. Of course, I was now nowhere near the number 2 luggage thingies. Had a nice ol' stroll down to fetch my luggage. Apparently, I will be getting fit this month. Whoop!
At the hotel, I slept for a few hours, got up and then went food hunting with two of my fellow IBMers that landed in the 10 am region. Anand, Himanshu and myself wandered off to find an Indian restaurant. Our hotel is in the old city in Istanbul - and apparently everything is mostly uphill from our hotel. Hehehehehehe. As I said, I will get fit. :D
I took some pictures as we went:
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| Loved the sign there! |
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| Anand and Himanshu |
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| We are very, very close to the ocean. |
We are really very close to the ocean. I have my window open and my senses are assaulted with the smell of ocean and the sounds of seagulls.........I'm ecstatic!
I have not gone scouting around more with Anand and Himanshu as I still had a few things to sort out. Plus, I really want to have a look around with the entire team. Not miss a thing of everybody's reaction. :D I've traveled alone most of my life, so traveling with a bunch of people is very exciting to me.
Okay, all - Tonight we're having our first team supper / get-together, and tomorrow we are going on serious tourist business. Will post again soon!
