The Club lounge on the 16th floor was nicely proportioned, divided into four distinct areas – a formal dining area with buffet, two comfy seating areas, and a library area with three laptop workstations. Staff were accommodating and friendly, and the view across the ‘new’ town was superb, made doubly so thanks to the clear winter weather. I suspect the lounge had been formed from a number of rooms or suites, and this lead to its divided layout, which may not suit all tastes. Whilst offering intimate areas, it did mean that I was forgotten about several times and had to walk into the area with more people to catch the waiter’s eye for drinks.



















I had two half-days in Istanbul, and managed to explore most of the area through a mixture of walking and taxis. Taxis in Istanbul are mildly alarming – no, OK, they’re actually downright scary. Handbrakes, indicators and seatbelts are three clearly unheard of devices in Istanbul. I used taxis I think on five separate occasions due to the distance from the hotel to the old town area (around 30 minutes in what seemed to be constant heavy traffic). I wasn’t ripped off as I had feared, as all of my taxi drivers were fairly friendly people in a non-committal sort of way – I even rounded down one fare, and the driver didn’t seem too offended (probably because I didn’t give him time to be offended, I was out of the car so quickly).









I was fascinated by the city of Istanbul itself, the seemingly endless number of people standing around doing what appeared to be very little, the beautiful architecture interspersed with modern monstrosities, dodgy pavements, earthquake damage, and horrendous traffic. Truly fascinating in every sense. I particularly enjoyed the area around the Suleymaniye mosque, the grand bazaar, and the waterfront scenery, which made for some great photographical opportunities.













Walking was not the easiest mode of transport, but did mean I saw much of the central areas of both new and old towns on the European side of the city. Given more time, I would have perhaps taken the ferry across to the Asian side, but I was perfectly content spending my time just soaking up the Turkish atmosphere in Europe.