Istanbul
So my bank holiday weekend with 
jerakeen was the best in a long, long time.
It didn't start out too auspiciously, though.
On Friday morning, a couple of hours before I was supposed to leave work and head to Heathrow, N linked me to a news item on the BBC website: a British Airways plane had made an emergency landing earlier, causing several flights to be delayed or cancelled.
I checked the Heathrow website and called Turkish Airlines customer service, both of which assured me that my flight was not affected, so I left work around noon to head to the airport. When I got there, the departure board still said that my flight was on time. It wasn’t until I got to the check-in desk that the lady there told me there was going to be a slight delay.
A slight delay of four hours, to be precise. So a four-hour delay, a four-hour flight and a two-hour time difference. My 10 pm arrival suddenly turned into a six-hour wait at the airport, followed by arrival in Istanbul at 2.30 am... On the plus side, it was the first time I've been on a plane that had two aisles and in-flight movies. I watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (and cried), then read a bit of fic.
Ah, London.
jerakeen had most generously offered to pick me up at the airport, and I bet she was just delighted. At least the Ataturk airport was fairly quiet and there wasn't much traffic but it was still close to 4 am by the time we got to her house.
Nazar, a charm to ward off the evil eye, on jerakeen's driveway.
You guys, she lives in a gated community! It was so cool, I've never seen those outside American TV shows. I didn't get a chance to really look around that first night, mainly because I was pretty much dead on my feet and just wanted a bed. I got the downstairs guest room to myself and poured myself to bed.
The house, as seen from the driveway.
A view of the garden from the balcony.
I didn’t wake up until noon on Saturday, when
jerakeen served me a delicious breakfast that I got to eat out on the balcony. I also got to take a proper tour of her amazing house. It's so beautiful, and she's gone to a lot of effort to make it nice and cosy. There were lots of geeky details that I loved but, for me, the best feature was definitely how
jerakeen's managed to make it feel like a home while keeping it light and modern. The garden was also big and gorgeous, with lots of different plants and flowers. It's a good thing she has a gardener because I can definitely see looking after it being a fulltime job.
jerakeen has a pair of tentacles on her dining room table! <3
Both cats were also present and even the stray made an appearance.
jerakeen's cats don't have names, which threw me off a bit at first but to be fair, I don't think S ever calls her cat by name, either, it's always just 'cat'.
Cat on jerakeen's lap.
After breakfast, we drove to Beşiktaş and took a ferry over the Bosphorus to Kadıköy on the Anatolian side, so that I can now say I've been to Asia. There we visited the shopping district preferred by the locals, and popped into a couple of awesome kitschy shops. I'm not much of a shopper but I find just walking around and seeing what's out there really fun.
Street vendor booths in Kadıköy.
Since we had time to spare, we took the ferry back to the European side and then a taxi to Ortaköy to see some more shops and street vendors. I didn't get myself anything but I did buy this horribly tacky Istanbul snowglobe for an ex-coworker who collects them.
We also had a (very late) lunch. The restaurant was right on the Bosphorus, with waves gently lapping at the paving on the square. The air wasn't that hot, something like 26 degrees, but the stones were hot enough that the water steamed where it hit them.
On the way back, we stopped in a mall in Levent to buy me some Turkish tea glasses. Before being allowed to drive to the parking garage, a guard stopped us to check the boot of the car. And before we were allowed into the mall itself, we had to put our bags through an airport-style X-ray machine. It was like entering the Buckingham Palace or something.
Back at the house, we settled in to watch some Teen Wolf and
jerakeen made the shocking discovery that both on the cover and on one of the discs, Derek has yellow eyes! I'd only seen season 1 episodes once but it was amazing to realise how many tumbler gif sets I've seen, because all the really important scenes felt like old friends. There were some scenes I'd completely forgotten about (Kate’s arrival, for one) but all the Sterek ones caused an inordinate amount of giggling. They’re also really weird to see when they don't loop endlessly! *g*
This time we went to bed at a more reasonable hour, and I was conscious enough to truly appreciate the magnificence of
jerakeen's guest bed. It was probably wider than the one N and I share at home and definitely infinitely more comfortable. Besides the bedroom, I had the entire ground floor to myself, and
jerakeen had provided everything from towels to toothpaste.
On Sunday we stayed at the house, enjoying breakfast on the balcony again.
jerakeen dug out a spare laptop for me and we spent a couple of hours just sipping tea, enjoying the quiet and surfing tumblr and AO3.
While picking mint leaves for our lemonade (because naturally jerakeen has her own herb garden), I ran into this guy. The photos not good because the thing was *fast*. It also did a great job reminding me that I'm a city girl, born and bred.
To me, it was a perfect day. The sun was shining but we were shaded by the porch roof, and there was the slightest warm breeze in the air. The only sound was the rustling of leaves in the trees surrounding the house. I love it when you find people that you can just spend time with, sharing space and quiet, without feeling that you have to keep up constant small talk.
Later, we watched The Road to El Dorado because I hadn't seen it before, though, again I'd seen so many gifs that I had a good idea of the general happenings. This was followed by some more Teen Wolf, and we managed to finish the first season in its entirety.
Monday morning
jerakeen drove me to the airport where, for once, there were no problems. I'd forgotten that they x-ray your bags just for entering the airport, and then again before proceeding to the boarding gates, though, so I did get to kill some time by standing in various queues.
I'd also completely forgotten that my return flight was to freaking Gatwick, until I printed my boarding pass on Sunday. I guess Gatwick doesn't warrant the big planes anymore than Finland does but they did have movies again, so I half-watched Dark Shadows and read some Temeraire.
When I eventually got home from Gatwick, to the tiny flat and the screaming kids next door, the difference between
jerakeen's peaceful oasis and our place hit hard and I basically broke down crying and totally freaked out poor N who was probably expecting me to be happy to see him again.
By now, I'm numb to the pain again and my time with
jerakeen is but a beautiful memory. *g*
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
jerakeen was the best in a long, long time.
It didn't start out too auspiciously, though.
On Friday morning, a couple of hours before I was supposed to leave work and head to Heathrow, N linked me to a news item on the BBC website: a British Airways plane had made an emergency landing earlier, causing several flights to be delayed or cancelled.
I checked the Heathrow website and called Turkish Airlines customer service, both of which assured me that my flight was not affected, so I left work around noon to head to the airport. When I got there, the departure board still said that my flight was on time. It wasn’t until I got to the check-in desk that the lady there told me there was going to be a slight delay.
A slight delay of four hours, to be precise. So a four-hour delay, a four-hour flight and a two-hour time difference. My 10 pm arrival suddenly turned into a six-hour wait at the airport, followed by arrival in Istanbul at 2.30 am... On the plus side, it was the first time I've been on a plane that had two aisles and in-flight movies. I watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (and cried), then read a bit of fic.
Ah, London.
jerakeen had most generously offered to pick me up at the airport, and I bet she was just delighted. At least the Ataturk airport was fairly quiet and there wasn't much traffic but it was still close to 4 am by the time we got to her house.
Nazar, a charm to ward off the evil eye, on jerakeen's driveway.
You guys, she lives in a gated community! It was so cool, I've never seen those outside American TV shows. I didn't get a chance to really look around that first night, mainly because I was pretty much dead on my feet and just wanted a bed. I got the downstairs guest room to myself and poured myself to bed.
The house, as seen from the driveway.
A view of the garden from the balcony.
I didn’t wake up until noon on Saturday, when
jerakeen served me a delicious breakfast that I got to eat out on the balcony. I also got to take a proper tour of her amazing house. It's so beautiful, and she's gone to a lot of effort to make it nice and cosy. There were lots of geeky details that I loved but, for me, the best feature was definitely how
jerakeen's managed to make it feel like a home while keeping it light and modern. The garden was also big and gorgeous, with lots of different plants and flowers. It's a good thing she has a gardener because I can definitely see looking after it being a fulltime job.
jerakeen has a pair of tentacles on her dining room table! <3
Both cats were also present and even the stray made an appearance.
jerakeen's cats don't have names, which threw me off a bit at first but to be fair, I don't think S ever calls her cat by name, either, it's always just 'cat'.
Cat on jerakeen's lap.
After breakfast, we drove to Beşiktaş and took a ferry over the Bosphorus to Kadıköy on the Anatolian side, so that I can now say I've been to Asia. There we visited the shopping district preferred by the locals, and popped into a couple of awesome kitschy shops. I'm not much of a shopper but I find just walking around and seeing what's out there really fun.
Street vendor booths in Kadıköy.
Since we had time to spare, we took the ferry back to the European side and then a taxi to Ortaköy to see some more shops and street vendors. I didn't get myself anything but I did buy this horribly tacky Istanbul snowglobe for an ex-coworker who collects them.
We also had a (very late) lunch. The restaurant was right on the Bosphorus, with waves gently lapping at the paving on the square. The air wasn't that hot, something like 26 degrees, but the stones were hot enough that the water steamed where it hit them.
On the way back, we stopped in a mall in Levent to buy me some Turkish tea glasses. Before being allowed to drive to the parking garage, a guard stopped us to check the boot of the car. And before we were allowed into the mall itself, we had to put our bags through an airport-style X-ray machine. It was like entering the Buckingham Palace or something.
Back at the house, we settled in to watch some Teen Wolf and
jerakeen made the shocking discovery that both on the cover and on one of the discs, Derek has yellow eyes! I'd only seen season 1 episodes once but it was amazing to realise how many tumbler gif sets I've seen, because all the really important scenes felt like old friends. There were some scenes I'd completely forgotten about (Kate’s arrival, for one) but all the Sterek ones caused an inordinate amount of giggling. They’re also really weird to see when they don't loop endlessly! *g*
This time we went to bed at a more reasonable hour, and I was conscious enough to truly appreciate the magnificence of
jerakeen's guest bed. It was probably wider than the one N and I share at home and definitely infinitely more comfortable. Besides the bedroom, I had the entire ground floor to myself, and
jerakeen had provided everything from towels to toothpaste.
On Sunday we stayed at the house, enjoying breakfast on the balcony again.
jerakeen dug out a spare laptop for me and we spent a couple of hours just sipping tea, enjoying the quiet and surfing tumblr and AO3.
While picking mint leaves for our lemonade (because naturally jerakeen has her own herb garden), I ran into this guy. The photos not good because the thing was *fast*. It also did a great job reminding me that I'm a city girl, born and bred.
To me, it was a perfect day. The sun was shining but we were shaded by the porch roof, and there was the slightest warm breeze in the air. The only sound was the rustling of leaves in the trees surrounding the house. I love it when you find people that you can just spend time with, sharing space and quiet, without feeling that you have to keep up constant small talk.
Later, we watched The Road to El Dorado because I hadn't seen it before, though, again I'd seen so many gifs that I had a good idea of the general happenings. This was followed by some more Teen Wolf, and we managed to finish the first season in its entirety.
Monday morning
jerakeen drove me to the airport where, for once, there were no problems. I'd forgotten that they x-ray your bags just for entering the airport, and then again before proceeding to the boarding gates, though, so I did get to kill some time by standing in various queues.
I'd also completely forgotten that my return flight was to freaking Gatwick, until I printed my boarding pass on Sunday. I guess Gatwick doesn't warrant the big planes anymore than Finland does but they did have movies again, so I half-watched Dark Shadows and read some Temeraire.
When I eventually got home from Gatwick, to the tiny flat and the screaming kids next door, the difference between
jerakeen's peaceful oasis and our place hit hard and I basically broke down crying and totally freaked out poor N who was probably expecting me to be happy to see him again.
By now, I'm numb to the pain again and my time with
jerakeen is but a beautiful memory. *g*
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.