Traveling Home 9.15.23

 Istanbul has over 200 cisterns left from Roman times.  The restaurant from our opening dinner was in one such cistern, which at one point was auto repair shop.  Basilica Cistern serves as a tourist attraction and museum near Hagia Sofia  and the Blue Mosque.  The below ground room is filled with Roman pillars with walkways between them to allow visitors to roam the entire room.  Color changing lights illuminate the pillows in a regular rhythm.  There is probably 1-2 feet of water covering the floor which makes it very humid inside even though it is below ground.  They have seeded the room with sculptures I guess to make it more of  a museum.  It's all very interesting and well worth a visit.

The hotel arranged a shuttle for the 5 Tulsans to transport to the airport for our flight home.  We arrived early so we could experience the Turkish Air lounge.  This may be the nicest lounge I have been in with fresh cooked food stations scattered around, a nice selection of drink options, and lots of different seating options.  Had I know how nice it would be I might have arrived even earlier. (note: these are not my photos)

Getting to our gate entailed a couple of more security checks which included random search of carryon luggage.  If you go, please leave yourself enough time to go through the additional screening.

Our flight home was non-eventful.  We stayed near the airport because we were exhausted from being up for close to 24 hours.  We had one last group breakfast before making the drive back home.

In conclusion, if you're thinking about visiting Istanbul I would highly recommend it.  The people are friendly, there's lots of history to explore, transportation is easy, and the food is interesting.  I would also recommend Turkish Air if they serve your area.

Until next time