Day 23 - Tehran to Istanbul

Left our hotel at 1 am with Mr Habibie for IKA. At this hour Tehran's roads are eerily deserted, such a change from daylight hours. Arrived at IKA only to be greeted by very long queues so our decision to leave early was justified. Eventually boarded  our Turkish Airlines flight to Ankara and the change in dress codes was immediately obvious. Hi-jabs and headscarves were abandoned and a generally more relaxed atmosphere was evident. A change of aircraft at Ankara and we were on our way again to Istanbul. Arrived at Istanbul shortly after 9 am and went to the baggage carousel only to immediately sense something was wrong when only ourselves and two other couples stood waiting at an almost empty carousel despite it being flagged with our flight number. Eventually got chatting to a mother and daughter from Tehran who made inquiries and found that we should be waiting at the international terminal carousels rather than the domestic as we were. After waiting at carousel 7 in the international terminal for what seemed like forever - probably an hour - we managed to retrieve one of our two suitcases and the same occurred for our friends from Tehran. Next a visit to the Turkish Airlines lost luggage office ensued with the resultant paperwork to complete. We were always conscious of the fact that we were catching a ferry the following morning and not having our suitcase would make life very difficult indeed. Trusting to the good people at Turkish Airlines we headed to our hotel, the Empress Theodora, in the old city area of Sultanahmet. After settling in we went wandering just up the road to a cafe for tea and pasta lunch. Then to Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque both of which are incredible structures and very beautiful inside and out. I'll leave it to the photographs rather than try and describe them more fully. After a day spent sightseeing and enjoying dinner in a small restaurant near our hotel we were still no closer to resolving the luggage issue. After a phone call to the airport that suggested some hope i.e. apparently it was with the courier company and due for delivery tomorrow after our ferry had departed, we then decided to catch a cab to the airport to try and sort out this mess in person. Eventually got to the airport at 10 pm and subsequently managed to get the courier company to deliver the suitcase back to the airport. A very long day indeed.