Touchdown Turkey

Well we left Prague on a glorious sunny day and made the private hotel car drive to the airport. interesting to get out of the scenic old city and out amongst the somewhat grim reality of monolithic apartment blocks lining the two lane highway separated by the commuter tram tracks running down the centre.
Prague airport was remarkably civilised and apart from the loathing engendered by the Germans who constantly connive to jump the queues was a very benign travel experience indeed.Interesting to see the cultural mix boarding to fly to Istanbul from Prague and really reinforced that Prague is a major European hub.
Had a good flight right through to the final descent airfield in view, wheels down then without warning applied full power and pulled the nose up and for what seemed a lifetime as the aircraft forged straight up skywards at full power.
A hush filled the cabin as we contemplated the reason for the aborted landing and a palpable sigh of relief was heard as we eventually levelled out at altitude then threw a hard right hand turn. A guttural Turkish Captain gave the briefest explanation that request by tower to climb out and wait for a further 5 mins.....presumably to avoid landing up the arse of another aircraft.
The passengers made small talk and a definite tension was obvious as we made the second approach.As we landed hard and fast the cabin was filled with applause and the hitherto silent Czech next to Gend and I leaned across and in relieved basic European English stated "that was first time he hear passengers make hand clap on a plane!".......just needs to fly into Wellington a few times to fix that.
OK I admit I did start to get the jitters when the taxi driver, and several of his driver mates didn't have a clue where our hotel was and that was after I had let myself get scammed by that oldest of new arrival dodges where a guy acting for all the world like a driver or dispatcher insists on grabbing your luggage and whisking it forward to the rank. Just as you relax that you have finally found a driver who is really into service the driver appears and the stand over by the other guy starts for his tip. At least this time I had no change except the sum total of every worthless coin from the Czech Republic that had ever been minted so I gave him a hand full. They are definitely coin that you don't pick up if you see them in the bar carpet.
The driver made three phone calls before he got lucky on an address and i was beginning to sweat. The area our hotel is in would make bombed out Beirut look good................literally what isn't recently burned out is sweat shops for textile and leather manufacturers.
It's got me beat it really reviews well over a long time on trip advisor and they can not all be set ups.It is a family owned and run hotel and so help me the creative who did the web site is a genius. Its not that the room is small its just that we have to turn side on to get past each other and the bathroom is certainly a room where you need to go outside to change your mind. I had difficulty picking up the washing from the floor of the shower cubicle because i was at risk of getting my shoulders stuck if I bent to low. You get the picture. My ever loving wife just smiled and expressed her disappointment after I had done so well up to now.The positive is that it is at ground zero for the sites and tonight we sauntered along to the blue mosque, the road to which was cordoned off by police, and all traffic stopped with no prospect of apparent reopening. Every time there was a loud bang everybody jumped out to see what was happening we just wanted to get as much space between us and what ever incident it was as possible.

Tonight just sat in the humid night air and had a couple of beers and some great Donner wraps, cheap and delicious. we brought Baklava and beers on the way home to the pigeon hole and prayed the AC was going to be a better model than the small 14" telly sitting on top of a mini fridge/empty was suggesting.
Tomorrow we will breakfast on the roof with a view of the Marmara sea and the dozens of anchored ships waiting for the run up the Bosphorous and then set forth to catch the sights.
it is a crazy exotic frenetic place and for me in many ways more edgy than the east, Bangkok seems like a doddle compared to this place, but there is a definite excitement and the feeling of collision of cultures going on here that is really quite different and exciting.
Photos to follow and we can rest our aching bodies after a mere 3.5k today.