Istanbul to Athens - Day 1

Our plane flight was uneventful, a bit of turbulance but we were so far back that's to be expected. It didn't last long. We booked the middle row, there were no side rows available. There were three seats so I booked the two aisle seats and the one between us remained empty, so that was a small plus. There was no self check-in for Turkish Airlines in SFO (that we found) so when we got our boarding pass I did ask about bumping up to business class. Since it costs $999.99 per person, it is definitely not in our future. Despite that, the seat we had was comfortable and had a decent amount of leg room.  In addition, on the Boeing 777-300ER, one does not become personally acquainted when passing in the aisles either! I can see why Turkish Airlines has been voted "the best"!  We had the typical tiny pillow, sanitized blanket, and ear phones on our seats when arriving. The overhead bins actually fit our luggage without a hassle. A toiletry bag was then given to us with slippers, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, lip balm, ear plugs, and a sleep mask. Shortly after take off we were given a menu! I can't recall seeing a personal menu on a flight since we flew Pan Am to Brazil to adopt Steven! Next was the drink cart with various alcohol, beer, and wine included. Once we settled in with our drink a hot cloth was provided for freshening up. It was soon picked up and our meal was being served, again with a drink of choice.  The only diet soda they have is Coke Light, which is fine. We are in row 47, so by the time it got to us the only choice left was the beef. Just so you know, "minced grilled beef" was meatballs, two of them that were fairly tasty but , tasted more like some sort of game meat than beef. The photo below shows the rest. We even had real utensils to eat with. I think the drink cart came by two more times but one time I was sort of asleep so I didn't look. The entertainment was top notch. I watched Fences and Beautiful Collateral. I also watched another movie, which I forget since that's the one I more or less slept through. When I smelled the coffee and breakfast coming my screen was blank. For breakfast we were served yogurt with a small piece of melon, cottage cheese with tomato and cucumber, and our entrée of mushrooms, scrambled eggs with peppers, and cubed potatoes. I am totally enthralled with the graphics and the flight screen in general.  There are many options for viewing your flight, even one live with two options of "Forward View" or "Forward & Ground View."  At least a long flight is as entertaining as it can be under the circumstances. 

Menu

Entertainment - See Fresno?

I'm not even sure what gate we came into when arriving in Istanbul. What I did notice is our next gate was just about as far away as it could possibly be. It is some comfort they put an approximate walking time to your gate … 1 to 29 minutes, not quite sure how they figure that one. Seems like we had the full airport tour by the time we got to our gate. At least we were there 30 minutes before boarding time. Sitting there, I am starting to feel quite groggy. 

This flight was also uneventful. I bit smaller plane I think but the same entertainment/info set up. We were served a hot sandwich and a drink then we were already descending. We passed passport control pretty quickly (despite people just walking right to the front of the line) and headed out to get a taxi. Why do we always get the ones that drive so fast? At one point he was going 140 kpm, which might not be so bad except the posted kpm was 80! When we were talking about it he slowed down a little so obviously he spoke some English. Check in at the hotel was fast, we were given a little packet of tour info awaiting our arrival, Easter news, and up to our lovely room. We got a bottle of wine by room serve, check out the lovely fresh fruit served with it! 

Our Room

Morning Coffee (breakfast is on the 6th floor)

Room Service

One thing that amazes me is all the green! So many thick forests of trees. I have not really noticed that in photos I have seen of both Turkey and Greece but it seems really green and lush from the skies. I've pictured it more like the Middle East, drier. Can't wait to explore. That's it for tonight!