Travelling from Alanya Gazipasa to Istanbul
Originally posted:240501
It´s 7 in the morning when the driver from the 24/7 transfer company picks me up in a white van.
The vans inside is covered in fake wood panels and soft cream colored leather seats. Embedded in the floor is a illuminated picture of an old clock and the ceiling has some kind of ornaments.
The price from Cikcilli to Gazipasa airport is somewhere between 1000-1250 lira (29-35 euro).
In the marvellous car and the marble kek
The airport is barely open when we arrive. Two tired men glance at my bag at the first security control but cant muster the energy to actually care. I proceed to the cafeteria and buy my self some turkish tea and a delicious piece of marble kek.
Gazipasa airport is small. And by small I mean very very small. There are no shops or restaurants here. Only one cafeteria outside the check-in area, nothing more, but their marble cake is good.
Traveling from Istanbul airport to the city with the subway
When we come to Istanbul I find my way to exit 9 and the M11 metro by following the signs and hop on the metro to Gayrettepe. At Gayrettepe station I follow the people to the green line, M2, which takes me to Sishane. I´m staying in a hotel near the Galata tower and it´s only about 10 minutes walk away from the Sishane station.
Istanbul airport
Pera museum
When i get to Sishane I discover that my offline map of istanbul isnt working!
So I just start walking.
In the wrong direction…
By now I´m both tired and hungry and somehow I end up at Pera museum.
The museum has wifi, and they also have a cafe!
The café has a cozy calm down atmosphere. Brown leather chairs, chestpanels and mirrors, beige rugs. They don´t sell food so I end up eating cake for lunch while I try to get my offline map of istanbul to work.
Then I check out the exhibitions. There is an exhibition called ”Future souvernirs” on the top floor and some interesting works of Osman Hamdi Bey, the enabler of Turkish contemporary art.
A painting from turkish artist Osman Hamdi Bey and the cake I ate for lunch
Restaurant Zühtü and the Galatahan hotel
Out on the street again I walk past a restaurant where they sell FOOD. I´m still hungry so I slip inside. The floor has a black and white pattern, a pilar camoflauged into a tree has a fuchia flower crown and a pink gorilla stares at me from the ceiling. The place smells like old cigarettes and I get a sudden impulse to leave.
Restaurant Zühtü has a colorful interior
Three men of different ages stop folding napkins and look at me.
It´s too late to turn back so I end up sitting at their fake marble table with a red velvet tablecloth full of cigarette holes eating adana kebab. The men continue working. Among the flowers is a hidden cctv camera.
After the food my, now working, offline map guides me to my hotel, the Galatahan hotel.
I check in. I have finally arrived to Istanbul!
My room in the Galatahan hotel, Beyoglu Istanbul
xoxo/Salla V
Originally posted: 240501