My dear friend A and I had big plans for a trip to Jordan in April 2020, but alas, COVID-19 thwarted our excitement. We often talk about traveling together in the future. A has been a close friend since our high school days, and she knows me inside out. She’s an incredible inspiration to me! I admire her straightforward nature and how she’s always ahead of the game. It’s easy for us to connect because we share so many similarities 😄
Suddenly, A popped the question: “How about a quick trip to Istanbul?” We hadn’t been thinking about Jordan “at the moment,” so I thought, “Why not?” Istanbul is rich in history, and I envisioned it as a trip to revisit school subjects in real life—quite the educational adventure! So, we set our sights on Istanbul for a 5-day Easter getaway, flying out from CPH the day before my birthday. 🥳
We opted for Turkish Airlines (of course!) and had a pleasantly satisfying experience. They even treated us to some food 😉 The flight duration was 3 hours and 15 minutes, although our scheduled boarding at 10:05 got delayed by over an hour, leading to a boarding time of about 11:30. Finally, we touched down in Istanbul around 14:45.
Finding a hotel during all the trips I’ve been to, has always been my task. So this time I booked Mercure Hotel Istanbul, in Sirkeci (in the historic part of Istanbul), close to all the historic mosques etc. Mercure Ist. Sirkeci is a 4-star hotel, and we were so satisfied with the hotel, its service, and our room. In fact, we got a free upgrade, to a bigger room, which was completely good! 🤩
Right after checking in at the hotel, we went out for dinner, and decided to get some Indian food, as we both prefer food with some spices (Read: LOTS of spices) 😜 So we got our dinner at Biryani Palace, just 5 mins. of walk from the hotel. We both got some biryani; I, of course, a veggie biryani, and it was so flavourful! 😍
Hereafter, we bought some helwa at a local shop. So good 😋
