🇹🇷 The Great Turkish Adventure: Part Five - Istanbul
Airport Chaos to Hotel Check-In: OK SO. We landed at Sabiha Gökçen Airport, named after Sabiha Gökçen, Turkey’s first female combat pilot and an absolute legend who took on rebels in the 1930s. Talk about an inspiring welcome to Istanbul! We made a beeline for the help desk (pro tip: these folks are lifesavers), and they pointed us straight to the HAVABÃœS shuttle into central Istanbul. We snagged seats and felt pretty smug about our travel skills… until plot twist: paying with an international debit card came with a ridiculous surcharge. Ka-ching! A brief moment of panic followed: did we have enough Turkish Lira (TL)? Thankfully, we did — just barely. We managed to avoid a stressful detour and made it into the city without a hitch. Reached the city center. Taxis saw tourists and turned into auctioneers: “BeyoÄŸlu? 1500 lira!” “Brother, it’s 5 minutes away.” “Yes, but my meter runs on dreams and despair.” We finally found a sane one and collapsed at Aysa Hotel (solid place, 10/10 st...