Christmas in Istanbul

Christmas in Istanbul: big city, muslim, good shopping...sounds like a great getaway, doesn't it? As with my other visits to Turkey, I found it to be very hit-and-miss.

The first hit: travel to Pristina Airport. The day before I left, someone said to me, "You know that's there's road construction between Pristina and the airport, right? I've heard that there are delays of up to two hours getting to the airport." I didn't know that, and a quick google search failed to bring up any information about road construction or delays. It was suggested that instead of taking the bus from Prizren to Pristina and taking a taxi from the bus station to the airport, I should go an alternate route: by bus to Gjakova and, from there, the bus to Pristina. The airport is on the way and the driver could drop me off at the Hotel Aviano where I could catch a cab to the airport. Not confactoring in the potential for road construction delay, the Gjakova route did take more time. Instead of, oh, about 2 hours from Prizren to the airport via Pristina, it took 3 (I did have 30 minutes between busses in Gjakova). However, going through Gjakova was considerably cheaper. Bus travel from Prizren to Pristina is 4 Euros, but the cab ride to the airport is 25, and I've found it difficult to negotiate the cabbies down. On the other hand, travel from Prizren to the Hotel Aviano was 5 Euros, and the additional cab fare into the airport was only 3 Euros (via a private car, not a legitmate taxi service). Total fare: 8 Euros. A nice big savings of 21 Euros. That's nearly a $30 difference.

The first miss: The Sebnem Hotel. Expensive. Small room. Lots of noise from the lobby. Okay breakfast. Nice staff. Actually, the staff were quite pleasant, but it's not a hotel I would reccommend or stay at again. I chose it based on its TripAdvisor ratings and comments, but I would have been better off staying elsewhere. The next time I go to Istanbul, I think I'd be smart to steer clear of Sultanahmet hotels. I've stayed in the area three times and none of the hotels were particularly good value.


...to be continued with uploaded photos.