I woke up in Jerusalem and compared to the day before found it was a more manageable 21 degrees Celcius. We got ready and went downstairs and at 8.40am got on the bus we had ordered earlier. The driver picked up more passengers at different hotels in the city in his Mercedes and by 9.05am we were well outside the city on the motorway. By this time there were nine passengers in the bus in addition to the driver. We headed down the mountain through a hilly landscape until we reached a part of the country that is given over to agriculture.
At 9.15am we passed a sign saying 24km to the airport and five minutes later we passed a cop in an unmarked white car by the side of the road pointing a speed gun at the traffic. At 9.30am we arrived at a checkpoint outside the airport and a guard entered the bus and asked where people had come from. We all dutifully answered and he said, “That’s a mixed group.” He left the bus with a smile but in front of the vehicle there was another guard holding an automatic weapon at the ready.
When we arrived at the terminal I paid the driver with the exact change (134ILS for two people) and by 9.45am we were at a cafe inside the building. We sat down to wait until the Turkish Airlines’ check-in counter opened. In the meantime I had a cappuccino and we also shared a tuna-salad and egg roll. With a bottle of water it came to 62ILS. At 10.30 I went over to the money exchange window to buy some Turkish lira. 900ILS changed into 1365TL.
I bought another coffee. Three Filipinas were at the cash register. Two of them wanted to get hot water for their water bottles and the sales clerk charged them 11ILS each for this service. A third woman wanted to buy a bottle of water with a US$100 bill. The sales clerk, a different one, said to the woman that she couldn’t do it because she didn’t have the change. Ultimately, one of the other women bought the third woman the water she wanted.
We fronted up to the security counter in front of the check-in desk and were asked a bunch of different questions. I was asked why I was travelling to Turkey and if I knew anyone living there. The guy at the counter who was accessing data on a computer terminal put stickers on our passports and we went through to check in at 11.40am. We headed to the next barrier in the entry process, which turned out to be more onerous for my travelling companion than it was for me. I only had to go through a regular scanner (after taking off my belt), which was the same as you find at other airports around the world. My friend had to use a different process and after I got through I sat down at 12.08pm on a cold marble seat to wait for her.
She eventually appeared. Then there was passport control, in the process of which you receive a ticket like a token. We were on a travelator by 12.35pm heading to the departure gate. We used the toilets on the concourse and then headed to the waiting area. We sat down at 12.55pm in a cafe after buying a cheese pastry and a Stella Artois beer (43ILS). Ten minutes later a couple appeared who had a dachshund on a leash with them.
We checked our boarding passes and found that they had both been issued in the same name, so we went to the airline’s desk at the gate at 1.30pm and asked them to issue a new one for my travelling companion. We sat down. At the gate a bunch of people were sitting around wearing identical yellow fluoro hats with crosses on them. At 1.55pm we lined up to board and 15 minutes later we were sitting on the plane. At 2.20pm the captain turned off the air-conditioning system in order to reset the electrical system. It took two minutes to do this, and at 2.42pm the A321 we were on took off.
The trip was uneventful and at 4.30pm we landed in Istanbul. We went through the enormous, echoing airport to the passport control desk, which was quick and easy, and then headed down to the baggage claim area. I changed some more ILS and also some US dollars into Turkish lira. US$62 came to 318TL and 390ILS came to 535TL. Then, with our suitcases we headed through customs, which was a breeze, and went to the taxi stand where we got into a well-used Fiat. The driver didn’t speak much English and I gave him the printed itinerary I had brought with me so that he could find our hotel. He kept the piece of paper on the seat next to him. He told us, when we asked in broken Turkish (using Google Translate), that the trip would take 48 minutes and we drove through the city’s suburbs toward the centre of town.
At one point we came off a main road into a succession of small alleyways, then we navigated our way around the shore, with the Bosphorus to our left, before going inland on a cobbled street that branched into other narrow streets. In the end the driver asked a man standing outside the front of a restaurant where the hotel was located and this man told him to go straight ahead and turn right. When we got to the intersection we found that there were parked cars blocking the way so the driver stopped the car in the carriageway and we got out with our luggage. I paid the driver 140TL to cover the 130TL (A$30) fare, plus a bit extra, but it was immediately noticeable how reasonable prices are in Turkey compared to either Jordan or Israel.
We walked down the street until we got to the hotel’s front door, then went inside. I gave the desk clerk the printed booking confirmation I had brought with me and he took our passports and made photos of them using his mobile phone, then gave us our room keys. At 6.25 we were in our rooms. I went out and bought to Efes beers (20TL) and came back to my room to rest. Later, we went out together and a man in front of a restaurant asked us if we wanted some food, so we got to talking with him.
He had studied in the UK and his English was excellent so we went inside his restaurant. We ordered a seafood casserole, a mixed grill, and a plate of rice. The meal came with a complimentary dish of hummus with black olives and flat bread, and after we had finished our waiter brought us some apple tea. I had two beers with the meal, which altogether came to 213TL. After eating we went for a bit of a wander and I bought two Carlsbergs (23TL) and also two large bottles of water (6TL), then we returned to our hotel.
While the room I had been allocated was not large and there was no place to put my suitcase the hotel was a big improvement on what we had put up with for the previous four nights in Jerusalem. One night in that city the fire alarm in the hallway gave out a beep every three seconds until in the morning the desk clerk did something to make it stop. The fire alarm actually went off one day when a guest was cooking toast in their room, allowing smoke to enter the hallway. The electricity cut out on three occasions, on one of which I had to phone the operator of the establishment to get it turned back on. And the wifi in the hotel was absolutely appalling, I had to connect my PC to my mobile phone for all of the time we stayed there. Without this measure it would have been impossible for me to publish blogposts.
At 9.15am we passed a sign saying 24km to the airport and five minutes later we passed a cop in an unmarked white car by the side of the road pointing a speed gun at the traffic. At 9.30am we arrived at a checkpoint outside the airport and a guard entered the bus and asked where people had come from. We all dutifully answered and he said, “That’s a mixed group.” He left the bus with a smile but in front of the vehicle there was another guard holding an automatic weapon at the ready.
When we arrived at the terminal I paid the driver with the exact change (134ILS for two people) and by 9.45am we were at a cafe inside the building. We sat down to wait until the Turkish Airlines’ check-in counter opened. In the meantime I had a cappuccino and we also shared a tuna-salad and egg roll. With a bottle of water it came to 62ILS. At 10.30 I went over to the money exchange window to buy some Turkish lira. 900ILS changed into 1365TL.
I bought another coffee. Three Filipinas were at the cash register. Two of them wanted to get hot water for their water bottles and the sales clerk charged them 11ILS each for this service. A third woman wanted to buy a bottle of water with a US$100 bill. The sales clerk, a different one, said to the woman that she couldn’t do it because she didn’t have the change. Ultimately, one of the other women bought the third woman the water she wanted.
We fronted up to the security counter in front of the check-in desk and were asked a bunch of different questions. I was asked why I was travelling to Turkey and if I knew anyone living there. The guy at the counter who was accessing data on a computer terminal put stickers on our passports and we went through to check in at 11.40am. We headed to the next barrier in the entry process, which turned out to be more onerous for my travelling companion than it was for me. I only had to go through a regular scanner (after taking off my belt), which was the same as you find at other airports around the world. My friend had to use a different process and after I got through I sat down at 12.08pm on a cold marble seat to wait for her.
She eventually appeared. Then there was passport control, in the process of which you receive a ticket like a token. We were on a travelator by 12.35pm heading to the departure gate. We used the toilets on the concourse and then headed to the waiting area. We sat down at 12.55pm in a cafe after buying a cheese pastry and a Stella Artois beer (43ILS). Ten minutes later a couple appeared who had a dachshund on a leash with them.
We checked our boarding passes and found that they had both been issued in the same name, so we went to the airline’s desk at the gate at 1.30pm and asked them to issue a new one for my travelling companion. We sat down. At the gate a bunch of people were sitting around wearing identical yellow fluoro hats with crosses on them. At 1.55pm we lined up to board and 15 minutes later we were sitting on the plane. At 2.20pm the captain turned off the air-conditioning system in order to reset the electrical system. It took two minutes to do this, and at 2.42pm the A321 we were on took off.
The trip was uneventful and at 4.30pm we landed in Istanbul. We went through the enormous, echoing airport to the passport control desk, which was quick and easy, and then headed down to the baggage claim area. I changed some more ILS and also some US dollars into Turkish lira. US$62 came to 318TL and 390ILS came to 535TL. Then, with our suitcases we headed through customs, which was a breeze, and went to the taxi stand where we got into a well-used Fiat. The driver didn’t speak much English and I gave him the printed itinerary I had brought with me so that he could find our hotel. He kept the piece of paper on the seat next to him. He told us, when we asked in broken Turkish (using Google Translate), that the trip would take 48 minutes and we drove through the city’s suburbs toward the centre of town.
At one point we came off a main road into a succession of small alleyways, then we navigated our way around the shore, with the Bosphorus to our left, before going inland on a cobbled street that branched into other narrow streets. In the end the driver asked a man standing outside the front of a restaurant where the hotel was located and this man told him to go straight ahead and turn right. When we got to the intersection we found that there were parked cars blocking the way so the driver stopped the car in the carriageway and we got out with our luggage. I paid the driver 140TL to cover the 130TL (A$30) fare, plus a bit extra, but it was immediately noticeable how reasonable prices are in Turkey compared to either Jordan or Israel.
We walked down the street until we got to the hotel’s front door, then went inside. I gave the desk clerk the printed booking confirmation I had brought with me and he took our passports and made photos of them using his mobile phone, then gave us our room keys. At 6.25 we were in our rooms. I went out and bought to Efes beers (20TL) and came back to my room to rest. Later, we went out together and a man in front of a restaurant asked us if we wanted some food, so we got to talking with him.
He had studied in the UK and his English was excellent so we went inside his restaurant. We ordered a seafood casserole, a mixed grill, and a plate of rice. The meal came with a complimentary dish of hummus with black olives and flat bread, and after we had finished our waiter brought us some apple tea. I had two beers with the meal, which altogether came to 213TL. After eating we went for a bit of a wander and I bought two Carlsbergs (23TL) and also two large bottles of water (6TL), then we returned to our hotel.
While the room I had been allocated was not large and there was no place to put my suitcase the hotel was a big improvement on what we had put up with for the previous four nights in Jerusalem. One night in that city the fire alarm in the hallway gave out a beep every three seconds until in the morning the desk clerk did something to make it stop. The fire alarm actually went off one day when a guest was cooking toast in their room, allowing smoke to enter the hallway. The electricity cut out on three occasions, on one of which I had to phone the operator of the establishment to get it turned back on. And the wifi in the hotel was absolutely appalling, I had to connect my PC to my mobile phone for all of the time we stayed there. Without this measure it would have been impossible for me to publish blogposts.
Above: On the motorway outside Jerusalem, heading west toward Tel Aviv.
Above: The flightpath from Tel Aviv to Istanbul.
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