May 3, 2014
Istanbul to Kuthaya
Hello!
As Robert says, we never feel quite as comfortable as when
we’re in a car and heading out of town…how true! This trip, because we were renting for so
many days, I really had to scramble about car rental. Most credit cards have insurance coverage for
rentals only up to 30 or 31 days – and we’re going to be on the road for
42. (One CC company actually said that
we would have to return first car after 30 days, and then wait a day until we
picked up car number 2 and started a new contract…right!) 
However, our friend and neighbor, Stew, suggested that we
investigate what American Express had to offer, as they do provide extra rental
coverage without purchasing the insurance from the car company. So…American Express it was, and to get a
really good price, we are renting through a small Turkish firm, called
Eresinler. As we’re picking up and
dropping off in Istanbul, I decided on the Sabiha Gokcen airport for pickup, as
it is on the Asian side, heading in the direction we want to go – and while I
do not mind driving in Istanbul, I do draw the line at Sultanahmet, which is
like a tiny rabbit warren full of one-way streets! However, I figured a couple of weeks ago,
that as they are not officially “on” the airport property, it might possibly be
easier if we went to their office. This
set off a round of 3-way emails between Eresinler, me and the front desk of the
Seraglio Hotel, who were very helpful! The
upshot is that we were to take a ferry to the this morning from the main dock
near the train station to Cadakoy, on the Asian side of Istanbul, and they
would meet us there. 
So…up about 6:30 a.m. after a lovely night’s sleep. My sleep bank is definitely catching up! Showered and packed up and ready to go about
7:30 a.m. We then went down and paid the
bill, and headed to breakfast. Excellent
– all sorts of goodies like yesterday to nosh on – again, no eggs! (And even though they say they don’t start
serving until 8 a.m., they were more than ready to go at 7:40 a.m.!) Back up to the room to collect our luggage –
and bid the Blue Mosque and the swing on the balcony a fond farewell! Then, downstairs and into a waiting cab for
the 5 minute drive to the ferry terminal.
We just missed the 8:40 a.m. ferry (we were shooting for the
9:10 a.m.) and were a bit confused about
tickets. We were told we just needed the
“Jeton” (token) – so, put 6 TL into the nearby machine, and out popped two Jetons! As Robert said, we are using public transportation,
so why not?! The next ferry pulled up a
few minutes to 9, and on we went. Lovely
crossing – took about 20 minutes, and we were in Cadikoy! As I had been told the other day, they
actually called R’s cell phone about 9:20 and we told them we were already
there. Connected with their
representative, who helped us with the bags to the street right in front of the
ferry terminal.
As it turns out, if we were using Visa or MC, we could have
just gotten in the little Opal Corsa they had waiting and driven off – but of
course, we wanted to use the American Express, which required additional
effort! We had to follow the two guys in
their Audi to their office and finish the paperwork. All without ever signing anything! Trip to the office took probably about 15
minutes, and was very interesting. The
Cadikoy area of Istanbul is truly lovely!
Huge high rise hotels, restaurants, stunning gardens – would love to
visit there again! The guys in the
office were hilarious – nobody spoke much English, but somehow we managed to
use our American Express card. As it
turns out, we are already fully insured with ZERO deductible under the contract
with Eresinler, but the American Express does provide some added
insurance!
So – on the road in our little 4-door white Opal Corsa! As we were already on the Asian side, the
driving was no different than driving in any other major city – with the
exception that in most major cities, I doubt seriously if buses just STOP along
the side of the road to let people off and on!
Incredible!
Once we cleared Istanbul, we were in some really lovely rolling
hills leading to some lovely low mountains and gorges. Lots of birch trees and everything really
green – beautiful!
The drive to Kutahya was scheduled to take 4 h 33 m, and we
made it almost exactly to the minute! We
are staying tonight and tomorrow night at the Hilton Garden Inn Kutahya, where
we had stayed two years ago. Checked in
and have a lovely non-smoking room on the 4th floor – and, guess
what?! It’s just down the hall from the
guest LAUNDRY!! Clean clothes
tomorrow!! YIPEE! (It doesn’t get much better than that!!) Nice king-bedded room.
Our plan had been to drop everything off and head out for a
walk around town; lovely day, sun shining!
(Last time we were here, we were in torrential rain!) However, neither the room safe nor the TV
were working. R called down to the front
desk and - in literally 3 minutes - two nice guys showed up to help! It took them a few minutes to reset the saf
andt the plug just needed to be jiggled for the flat screen TV. Then, out we went..
Down the street – Kutahya is a university town, so lots of
young people around – and Robert spotted what looked to be a local market – and
it was! Really fun! Huge covered area for the food stalls, and
then on every side of the food, there were clothes, toys, linens, etc. Great fun!
(I smelled the fishy part of the market, but wasn’t able to get
there…too bad!) Again, as during our
last visit, there are some fruits or veggies that we don’t recognize at
all! And while Robert did ask what
things were, with our lack of Turkish and their lack of English, we still have
no idea what some of these folks were selling!
(But then that’s what really makes travel so much fun!)
Walked through the market and headed down the other side of
the street. Kutahya is Turkey’s
porcelain capital, and we were able to get into one outlet. Some really lovely things, but one thing we
do NOT need is more dishes…unfortunately! 
Stopped for a Magnum
Classic for me (having skipped lunch, but having had a large breakfast!) in
one of the pretty public parks nearby.
Then, back to the Migros
grocery store which is actually attached to the Hilton hotel. We would love to find the kind of cheese we
have for breakfast – white, crumbly, tastes like Feta – but couldn’t see what
we wanted in the cheese section…R doing research now on-line! (Note:
we think we have the name – Beyaz Peynir – so may go back and take a
look!) We did, however, find a bottle of
very nice Turkish Sauvignon Blanc, which we are enjoying as I type!
The dinner options are actually fairly slim. Lots of kebap places, but we actually didn’t
see any real restaurants on our walk, and TripAdvisor is fair to partly useless
here. Obviously not many people come
here, which makes it all the more fun!
Back to the hotel about 4:30 p.m. and having wine and possibly
a short nap. As it looks like we will
definitely be having dinner here at the hotel, I will finish this later!
m
xxx
Back from a very nice dinner in the hotel’s restaurant
(feeling like the ONLY place in town!)
We went down a bit after 7, and of course, were the first
folks there. Sat by the window, although
a bit difficult to see through the curtain.
I was really truly starving, and ordered a garden salad and something
that indicated a beef kebap. Robert
ordered the Cesar salad with their fillet of beef. The reason my salad photo looks a bit odd is
because I didn’t remember to take pictures until after I had started eating
it! Oh well!! Salad was good – lettuce, parsley, shaved
cheese, walnuts and tomatoes, served with oil and vinegar – not my favorite,
but as I said, I was starving, and it was great! My meal came, as you can see, in a flat
bowl-type dish. Rather than being the
normal kepab, it was slices of beef served on a layer of shoestring potatoes,
with a sauce of yogurt. It was FABULOUS!
Robert had his fillet (a bit over
cooked) with both rice and French fries – something we always forget about! And veggies.
We both enjoyed our meals tremendously!
Then, back up to the room to post for the night, as I NEED to get to
sleep!
m
xxx 
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