{"id":390,"date":"2010-08-02T13:02:59","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T17:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=390"},"modified":"2015-02-14T13:40:06","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T18:40:06","slug":"first-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=390","title":{"rendered":"First Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"

We arrived at Ataturk Airport at 9:55 in the morning Istanbul time after a nine hour flight.\u00a0 The weather was hot, hazy, and very humid. It took more than an hour to get out of the airport and drive to hotel.\u00a0 After much research and many emails to my cousins last winter, we had decided to make reservations at The White House Hotel in the Sultanahmet District of Istanbul.\u00a0 Of course, you never know what to expect when you make an online hotel reservation, sight unseen, in a strange city. I am very happy to report that the White House Hotel is a winner!! It deserves it’s top rating in Trip Advisor.\u00a0 The young woman at the reception desk was professional and friendly and very helpful.\u00a0 The young man who helped us with our bags was also kind and mannerly.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The White House is a small “boutique hotel” and is very clean, comfortable, and well run. \u00a0My single room (probably also a double) is on the small side, but immaculate, pleasant, and well decorated.\u00a0 It has a very efficient air conditioner (of which I immediately lowered the temperature), and it has free WiFi in all the rooms.\u00a0 The White House was completely rebuilt less than a year ago, so everything is new and clean.\u00a0 The hotel is situated on a small and quiet street off the main tourist routes.\u00a0 It seems to be a commercial neighborhood of print and photocopy shops and book stores. There are many good restaurants surrounding the hotel. Best of all the people who work in the White House are all wonderful, helpful, and friendly staff of young, eager, hardworking, pleasant people. \u00a0Any time during the day or night, we were greeted with friendly welcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The location of the hotel is also perfect.\u00a0 The Sultanahmet district is called the “old city” because it is in the heart of historic Byzantium\/Constantinople where most of the tourist sights are located.\u00a0 The Hagia Sophia is a short ‘blocks’ away.\u00a0 The Blue Mosque is across a beautiful little park, and the Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern, and many many restaurants are close by.\u00a0 The modern “tram”, runs along the street past Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, carries locals and tourists across the Golden Horn on the Galata Bridge.\u00a0 Topkapi Palace, the Archeological Museum, and Gulhane Park are a short walk from The White House in several directions.\u00a0 Up the hill, toward the north, is the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, and enough shopping stalls in the narrow little streets to satisfy any compulsive shopaholic.<\/span><\/p>\n

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After we checked in and were shown to our rooms, we decided to walk around the neighborhood to see what was there.\u00a0 We also wanted to buy\u00a0 bottled water and to find a bank with an ATM to obtain Turkish Liras.\u00a0 We had asked for directions at the reception desk but missed a turn and ended up walking through a neighborhood of small clothing stores. The stores lined the narrow streets and resembled stalls in a market place.\u00a0 They seemed to be selling every type of clothing imaginable and reminded me of the garment district in down town Manhattan.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It would be easy to get lost and lose one’s direction in the small narrow interconnecting ancient streets and alleyways.\u00a0 We walked through the cobblestone maze surrounded by workers carrying and hauling boxes and bags of clothes. Men pushed hand-trucks overloaded with boxes up and down the hilly stone streets. Some other men were hunched over carrying huge loads on their backs on hand-made twine and wood “back-packs”.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chris quickly learned the interconnecting alleyways and side streets.\u00a0 He was immediately able to find our way back to the hotel.\u00a0 Amazing!!\u00a0 After we found a bank, we walked down the hill toward the Hagia Sophia Museum.\u00a0 The area was crowded with tourists.\u00a0 We walked around to get our bearings and looked at the Blue Mosque and the pretty park connecting it to Hagia Sophia.\u00a0 The tourists seemed to be mostly Muslims with the women sporting a wide variety of feminine head coverings.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We both were hot and very tired from not sleeping on the plane to Istanbul, so we returned to the White House Hotel and took short naps in our own cool rooms.\u00a0 My room is on the first floor and Chris’s room is on the third floor.\u00a0 In the early evening, it felt a bit cooler and we returned to Divan Yolu Caddesi (the big “tram street” we called it).\u00a0 We found a restaurant on a small side street overlooking the Blue Mosque and had a good veggie dinner.\u00a0 Then Chris and I strolled leisurely back to the White House. On the way, we purchased a few postcards and bought two small pieces of baklava to eat later.\u00a0 It had been more than a full day and 5,123 miles travelled from New York City to Istanbul.\u00a0 We earned a rest!<\/span><\/p>\n

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We arrived at Ataturk Airport at 9:55 in the morning Istanbul time after a nine hour flight.\u00a0 The weather was hot, hazy, and very humid. It took more than an hour to get out of the airport and drive to hotel.\u00a0 After much research and many emails to my cousins last winter, we had decided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,3,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-istanbul","category-travel","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8698,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/8698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}