After a restless night of sleep, trying to correct for the travel/time zone changes, we got up at ~4:30a and handled the little packing that we needed to leave. Following the great breakfast in the Priority Lounge, we made the super short walk to our gate (~5 minutes) for the flight from Doha to Istanbul - exciting!
For for boarding, during the flight and for deplaning we had to wear a face shield in add to our face mask (this was less than ideal for Tammy). There was something surreal and apocalyptic about being on a plane full of passengers in face shield and breathing masks, served by a crew dressed in pseudo-hazmat suits.
The Istanbul airport (IST) was really empty and very nice. We went through Immigration/Customs without any issue, although getting our checked backpacks took forever. While I waited for the luggage, Tammy bought some Turkish Lira (1 TL = $0.15 USD). Once our backpacks showed up we bought a SIM card for Tammy’s phone a got a taxi to the hotel in town.
We checked in to the White House Hotel and were treated likely royalty! The owner served us this great welcome tray (orange drink, Turkish Delight and flowers), verbally talked us through every aspect of the services/facilities and gave us an “Evil Eye” charm (Nazar Boncuk) as a welcome gift. He also upgraded us from a double room to a family suite since we were the first customers he’d had since reopening from quarantine.
White House Hotel from the street
Look how beautiful this tray of treats is!
Our room was totally adorned by the time we got there, including a personalized hand-written note.
From the rooftop patio we have amazing view of the Hagia Sophia!
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