Arrival in Istanbul - October 12

I landed in Istanbul yesterday (October 12), another adventure had begun.  After I cleared customs I headed to the baggage claim, and discovered my backpack was not on the belt.  After checking with 3 different baggage claim areas, and being redirected back to the first lost and found area I had gone to, lo and behold there was my pack.  I have no idea where it was before, or why it appeared at the lost baggage claim when I was watching the belt that clearly had the bags that had come from Toronto.  I was very happy to see it, needless to say, after the fiasco in El Salvador last year, where I waited 3 days for my bag to arrive.

  From the airport I made my way to the Istanbul Hostel - by metro, tram and walking - took about an hour and 20 min altogether - arriving at the hostel at 4:30pm.  I was pretty exhausted by the time I got there, as I hadn't slept much at all on the plane.  There was a infant that cried for most of the night on the flight from Toronto to Istanbul.  I met a nice couple from Seattle on the plane that were going to Turkey for the first time as well.  So I proceeded to take a 2 hour nap before searching out some food.  The hostel was in the main tourist area - not far from Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.  They had a rooftop terrace restaurant - where there were great night views of Hagia Sophia.  I had dinner up there - some beef kebabs, salad and bread - which were quite tasty.  I went to bed quite early - as I was still quite jetlagged and slept for a good 12 hours - til 09:30am today.