Day 1 – Doha to Dubai to Istanbul

We were so excited to be leaving Doha!! We arrived at the airport and standing in the queue Matt, who had left his exit permit at the office, started to worry about the fact that his looked completely different t ours. Luckily Ellen had grabbed it for him and brought it to the airport, she was now intent on making him sweat. The poor guy was wrought with worry about the possibility of not being able to leave the country!!

We got on the flight in Dubai to find that although we had checked in together we were all sitting in different places. Ellen was sat next to Sophia and a huge guy. He had to be moved for take off and landing as he would not have got out of the emergency exit he was sitting next to. He created a huge amount of fuss about his having to be moved but come one if the plane went down and he tried to get out we would all be stuck!

Arrive in Istanbul at 1:30am. Took us such a long time to get through their customs!!! The queue was about 4 people deep and 30 people wide! The only good thing was that being a Kiwi, we are so great, I didn’t have to pay for a visa! The others, Aussies, English and Swedish paid varying amounts to get a little sticker in their passports. It was a very long wait however Ellen and I felt much better after purchasing a large bottle of Vodka as soon as we reached the other side.

As we came out from the Airport and tried to cross the road I was almost taken out by a local reversing at about 30km up the road over the pedestrian crossing. I had only just gotten used to checking in the other direction when crossing the street and one came from the other side. Luckily I managed to dive out of the way fast enough and was able to continue on with the holiday in one piece.

We were shown a bus that would take us to the area where we were staying. After loading all our bags in the bottom and sitting down we were told it would be at least another hour before they would be leaving. Being so early in the morning we canned the bus idea and walked to the Taxi rank. My god I thought the drivers in Qatar were crazy, this was a mere introduction to the Turkish taxi drivers. Quite a different experience going 170km along the freeway with no seatbelt!

We arrived unscathed at the Istanbul Hostel ready to settle in for the night. We had all made bookings for rooms in previous week. Alas on requesting that the kind gentleman show us our rooms we were told that they had been given away as we had arrived late. Even though we had specifically said in each of those emails that our plane arrived at 1:30am and that we would be checking in late, plus we had paid a deposit. After a little haggling, thoughts of just sleeping in the reception area, and a few desperate phone calls made by the somewhat flustered hostel employee, we were being ushered up the road to another hostel. Sophia, Nanine, Ellen and I bunked up in a 3 person room and had a lovely sleep, some of us even experiencing the wondrous but foreign experience of rain!