Nov. 1/09 Istanbul day 1

We got up early for our 9:50am flight to Istanbul.
Headed to the airport and walked around waiting for our flight to board. Grabbed a quick bite and then boarded our plane. We were a little late leaving but finally took off. The weather was raining and windy so the first part of the flight was bumpy. They served a hot breakfast of some kind of meat my little plastic knife couldn't cut, 3 potato nuggets, tomato slice, what Carleigh said was eggs, yogurt, fruit, roll with jam and juice.
The weather in Istanbul was similar to London and got bumpy as we started to descend. The pilot came and said we were starting our approach and it may be bumpy. Then a loud buzzer sounded twice and then a recording announced “ATTENTION ATTENTION THIS IS AN EMERGEN...” 5 seconds later the pilot came back on apologizing for pressing the wrong button. I think I needed to change my pants!
Our landing was bumpy but I was just glad to be on the ground!!!
I had arranged with the hotel to have a car there for us which of course wasn't there. We waited and waited and I finally met the man who worked for our hotel but our name was not on the list. I am so glad I printed off the email and brought it with me since the driver called the hotel and he said he hadn't received my email with our flight info. We then had to wait again but I am not sure why because he did not speak good English. Finally I said we were taking a cab and left him trying to talk us into staying.
Arrived at the hotel to the owner apologizing his emails from that time had been deleted.
We checked in to the hotel – very cute little place in the old section of the city with VERY narrow roads.
Carol & David, our Tasmanian friends from our last cruise came by with their son Sean and we went out for a beer and then some Kebabs and another beer at another place. The waiter at the second place loves Canada and joked with Carleigh, giving her the store's number and telling her to call him. The food was ok but the beer was good.
It was a fun evening.