Susan's NGTAW Blog: Turkish Airlines = Turkish Delight

May 4, 2016

Michael and I are on Turkish Airlines flight 0006, departed from O’Hare about half an hour ago, and on our way to Istanbul. Sadly, our flight was 2 hours late departing, because the flight in from Istanbul was delayed. It was an easy wait, however, as we received complementary passes to the Turkish Airlines lounge at the ORD international terminal. We relaxed, called Elizabeth, notified Muammer that we would be late, used the WiFi and had a few snacks until they were ready for boarding at 10:30 PM.

We are flying business class and it’s a lovely experience. The seats are fully extendible, lie flat, and contained in the new “pods” that keep you from being disturbed by any movement of the people in front of you. We each have a large screen for video viewing (bigger than my MAC Power Book), headphones, slippers. Turkish Airlines has a slogan – “sleep like a baby” – and they provide you with a “Bohca” sleeping set – a pillow, a duvet mattress, a blanket, a back support pillow – all in a lovely shade of colonial blue, which matches the color of the slippers they provide.

We began the flight with fresh mint lemonade and raspberry fennel drinks, then a sampling of Turkish delight. We’ve been provided lovely menus – for tonight’s dinner (which will arrive about 1 AM !) and tomorrow’s breakfast. The (non-alcoholic) drinks alone are amazing. I ordered Homemade Cold Tea: Melissa, chamomile, sour cherry, lavender and date syrup – said to be good for stress relief, promotes sleep and anti-jet lag. The other Homemade Cold Tea is mint, fennel, lemon, and date syrup, which promotes “stomach relief”. They have 5 hot tea wellness selections: fennel, anise, caraway (promotes healthy digestion); mate, sage, ginger (refreshing); green tea, cherry stalk, cornsilk, clove (resolves the edema & reduces swelling); linden, ginger, Echinacea, clove, cinnamon (supports the immune system). I want to try all 5!

Dinner was served in six courses, by a chef with a toque! We began with drinks and nuts, canapés, tomato soup, first course – prawns, smoked trout, crab cakes with chili sauce, and beet salad with goat cheese, and the main course was fillet of beef and grilled salmon. We proceeded to dessert (baklava – although the dessert trolley offered many choices), then coffee/tea/port and chocolates. A tour de force to be sure!

We slept (like a baby, as advertised) from about 2 AM Chicago time until 7 AM. I have switched over officially to Turkish time (8 hours ahead). It’s now 4:12 in the afternoon in Istanbul and we are due to arrive in about an hour. As predicted, we made up some time with the westerly winds at our tail and we are arriving just over an hour later than expected. We already have our Turkish visas – applied on line on Tuesday. It took all of three minutes to pay the $20 fee and print it out.

Breakfast on the plane this morning was a lavish bookend to dinner – fruit, cheese, pastries, muesli, juice, tea, coffee. I had two perfectly cooked fried eggs and Mike had an omelet. We finished with an offering of Godiva chocolates. How crazy to be so enthused about the food – but, to quote Mike – “this is the best food I’ve ever had on an airline!”

Signing off until after we arrive, get through customs and meet Muammer and check into our hotel (Sirkeci Mansion Hotel) in Sultanahmet.

Thanks Turkish Airlines for a delightful flight to Istanbul

My lovely colonial blue slippers matched the bedding they provided!

Mike's happy - he got to sleep and work on his projects.

A six course dinner - this course included prawns, a crab cake with chili sauce, beet salad with goat cheese, smoked trout - accompanied with a little candle luminaria, for that romantic atmosphere....