Istanbul - Turkey 2007

Well, I have finally arrived after a rather long day travelling. I left home at 6.30am this morning to be picked up at my place of work. The journey started with a slow drive up the M4 Motorway to Heathrow Airport. By 10am I had checked in and had made my way upto the Business Lounge for some refreshments and a little relaxation. So far, so good.......... Now, I am not going to start to get all political and moan about our aiports, but what was supposed to be an 11:25am take-off ended up being a 1:00 pm take-off (3.00pm Turkey time). We had sat squashed up in our seats for an hour and a half without so much as moving an inch.... I could have swam half way by now!!! I got bored, so started taking photos already... This is out of the window..... and as you can see, being England it is bloody well raining!!!! and this is a photo of the interior of the plane from my seat... Please note that the picture shown on the TV screens on the back of each seat is NOT a gripping film or even a slightly amusing comedy, but instead was live footage of a static white van filmed from a camera on the undercarriage of the plane. Not only did the plane not move for ages, but nor did the white van. Oh well, back to counting rain drops.... Anywayz, by the nature of the fact that I am writing this post from my hotel room, we did finally take off. To amuse myself during the flight I took the opportunity to take a few photos of the flight.... The photo above is a beautiful shot of the London skyline. As you can see, on the left we have Westminster Bridge, just below is Buckingham Palace and if you look closely to the right you can see the London Eye.... well, you would have been able to if there wasn't so much cloud! I beg of you to use your imagination on this one. The one below is a little clearer, it's just a shame that I have no idea what country we were flying over at this point. I could have looked on the map on the TV in front of me, but I was in the middle of watching "Ocean's 13" and didn't want to disrupt my viewing.... anyway, it was somewhere over Europe (if I were to make an educated guess, and yes that is always dangerous with me, I would say Germany) Ahhhh, I smell alcohol.... it must be afternoon snack time.... Mmmmmm, just enough time to devour a glass or two of red wine (although I am convinced it was vinegar) before lunch arrives. I was a bit foolish, I forgot to ask what lunch was before I opened it. I kinda thought I would recognise it, but nope. Not even by taste and smell. Still, the wine wasn't too bad and the cheese & crackers were not too warm and soggy either. Now, back to the flight....



I did take some video of the flight and landing but cannot seem to get the upload to work on my 'work' laptop. It'll have to wait until I get home.

So, we finally landed safe and well, thank goodness. The arrivals was nice and easy, I queued to get my visa stamp, then through to passport control before collecting my luggage and jumping in the nearest taxi. About 40 minutes later, I arrived at the Ceylan Intercontinental Hotel and checked in.

Here is a small collection of photos of my hotel room, which will be my resting place for the next few days...





Finally, here are a couple of pics of the night skyline view from my hotel window...



Well, that's it from me for now, it's gone midnight and I have a horrible early start in the morning... I will add more to this post over the next couple of days.


Ta ta for now,

Graham :)