Lodging in Istanbul

After dinner our blue lit minibus took us to our accommodations for the night. (We felt like we should be breaking out the disco ball or something)

Our hosts put us up in a K-12 private school.  There is a floor with hotel-like rooms in the complex, which were quite comfortable.  We were met at the door by two security guards who helped get us settled.  When we got off the elevator there was a shoe cubby for us to put our shoes in...sock feet throughout the floor until we go down for breakfast.

Our host is staying the night with us in case we need anything.  In fact after we got settled in, he walked several of the students around the corner to a local convenience store and treated them to some 'midnight' snacks.  Totally unexpected to the students and quite endearing.

There is a nice 'salon' / lounge area on the floor with couches all around the walls and a balcony with a good view of the city.

It was good to be able to wind down and relax after the long trip.  Several students got their position papers written, which we discovered were required at the conference only 3 days ago.  Kudos to them for getting them written under such a tight timeline!

It was funny to hear about one student's discovery of the bidet in the bathroom.  These are quite common here.  They were even installed in the toilets in the airport.