I realised that I was taking too many photos of stray cats in Istanbul, so I’ll pop some of the photos in this post and then I won’t need to mention it again. It’s not known how many stray cats there are in the city, but it’s thought to be around 125,000 to 175,000. That’s a lot of cats and the city has a policy to just let them be.
Sitting on a validator is likely quite warm and passengers can always work around it….
Very sweet.
A very focused cat.
A sleepy cat, I liked him…..
This one wanted attention but then saw a bird. Not that I went too near the cats, I’m unsure what little illnesses they might carry.
If you want to support local stray cats, they have cat feeding machines…
Perhaps this is why most of the cats looked relatively healthy. although it seems that many cats are adopted by locals who look out for them.
Istanbul Airport is a beautifully laid out building with clear signage and grand opening spaces. I’ve already mentioned that the wi-fi didn’t work, but I won’t continue to dwell on that.
The public transport signage, I was fortunate to have Jonathan to guide me through the options.
This is the covered outside area, it reminded me of Heathrow T5. It’s about a ten minute walk to get from the arrivals area of the airport to the metro lines.
I was hoping that the transportation system would be contactless, but it was more like London’s outgoing Oyster system. However, there were enough machines and the process was relatively painless and inexpensive.
We needed to take two metro trains to get to the city centre, this is the platform at the airport where we ready for our first journey.
We were heading to Gayrettepe Yonu station when we were transferring to a second line.
A photo of the metro train as we departed it, it had been much busier than that during the journey.
Changing trains at Gayrettepe Yonu, our first journey had taken around 45 minutes as the new airport is located a fair way out.
There was a bit of a walk, but we meandered up and down lots of stairs and corridors to another line which dates to the early 1990s. There’s a charge every time you change lines, but it’s all clear and works well.
There is wi-fi on some of the network for locals, but it doesn’t work on UK phones. I hardly complained about this to Jonathan.
The second train heading towards the Vezneciler-Istanbul University metro stop which is where we were getting off. This was a shorter journey of around twenty minutes.
And at around midnight, we arrived into the heart of Istanbul with just a twenty minute walk to the hotel. It was a little later than we would have liked, but we knew that the hotel had a 24-hour reception and it was good to be properly in Turkey for my first time (or Jonathan’s about 20th visit).
I had just enough time to pop into My Lounge at Gatwick Airport before the flight. It was busy when I entered but they were happily letting Priority Pass customers in without a queue, although it took me a little time to find a power point to ensure I was fully charged for the journey ahead.
There was some fruit for those who like that sort of thing.
And some reliably dreadful tasting Cruzcampo beer, but that’s fine as it’s meant to taste like that and wasn’t a serving error (although it is self-pour).
Our 13:05 flight was delayed by 80 minutes which was a little sub-optimal, but not critical to our travel arrangements.
I don’t entirely trust My Lounge food, but this looked safe enough as a little snack.
Boarding at the gate was, once again, efficient and well ordered. There were some passengers pushing their baggage limits somewhat, but they came unstuck as they were checking some bags. It’s an expensive extra cost for those who thought that they’d get away with it.
Boarding the aircraft which was registration G-WUKS, an aircraft that I don’t think that I’ve been on before. There was another ten minute delay whilst an engineer came on board to tape up a tray table was broken, but then we were good to go.
Jonathan and I had been randomly allocated middle seats which I had been slightly dreading as it was a four hour flight. Fortunately, when I boarded the row of three a couple of rows in front was evidently empty so I made a run (well, brisk walk) towards it. Another passenger mentioned to me that she was also moving there with her husband, but she suggested that I had the aisle seat, which is the one that I wanted anyway.
Jonathan had equally good news in being able to move to an aisle seat. The flight was actually three and a half hours, not four hours, but it’s a lot more comfortable when not wedged into a middle seat. The aircraft was clean throughout and as usual, the cabin crew were friendly, engaging and efficient.
And safely into Istanbul Airport which had no working wifi (I mentioned this a few times to Jonathan), but it’s a grand looking airport and the largest privately owned one in the world. It opened in 2019, replacing Ataturk Airport, and seems to be rather a long way from Istanbul. Anyway, on the positive side, the border control process only took fifteen minutes and we could then plan on getting to the hotel. Design wise, it looks an impressive airport and I’m sure that I’ll be back here again at some point in the future.
Although by this time we were around an hour behind schedule, the whole arrangement from Wizz Air surprised and delighted me, especially since I wasn’t trapped in the middle seat. Coping without wifi for another two hours wasn’t what I expected after landing though, but that’s not the fault of Wizz Air.
