So what started out as us taking our biggest L since travling, turned itself around, butnot without casualty. Long story time.
So we have been in a hotel since coming to Istanbul because I wanted to come for a few days, get the vibe before booking a month long airbnb. So I found the Airbnb I wanted, bamb, it got snatched up. I was sad. Because it is apprantly high season and everything is overpriced. By high season I guess they mean kinda after covid and they wanna make up for the last year and some. So I booked another one right away that looked perfect and in the area we wanted. We are checking in tomorrow but the host says she can meet today to hand over the keys and go over everything. Ok, cool.
Get there and my soul leaves my body. Kal-El walks out and says he is not staying there. Jor-El says it has character, he likes it, its like "authentic" I mean I agree with him to an extent. The apartment looked NOTHING like the pictures. It was old and run down from walls to floor. I sit there like, wth. I am not staying here for a month. And it's non refundable. How will I get my money back from Airbnb. I hit them up and get the someone will contact you this is not for us regular reps blah blah blah. I call chase and they say the amount has to post before they can dispute. I tell her point blank this is deceptive and I can't stay here. Nothing looks like the pictures. I walk out to breathe.
The place I wanted the guy messaged me back saying the people that booked backed out because of the stairs and tells me its on the 4th floor no lift. Typical Europe, been there done that. I say ok can I come by to look at it right now before booking, He says yes and send the address. We go there and as we emerge from the metro we see new Istanbul. Thats what the kids call it because we were no longer in the historic area, we were in the new high rise, malls, city center area. I had no idea it was like that. It was beautiful and familiar. We get to the bnb and the host takes us to the apartment. The hallway and stairs look new and clean, ok we have hope.
Get there and he opens the door. Our jaws dropped I had to tell the kids to act normal, as if we didnt just come from a dump. The place is perfectly renovated to "Western" Standards. New applainces, new floors, new paint, new furniture, new...everything. The host says he travles a lot and stays in airbnbs and wanted to build something in his home that he wants to stay in when he travels. And that he did. We cannot wait to move in tomorrow. The place is huge (by Euorpeon standards) and looks amazing. Plus we have 2 balcony areas to sit and drink wine. He ask if I see everything I will need and if not to let him know and he will get them ASAP. We checked the wifi and it's fast which is one of the first things we do everywhere. The day definitely turned into a W. I went on AirbnB and booked, of course to protect myself and the host.
So the first place she says she can change it to 4 days and it will deduct those four days and refund me the rest. I just wanted something of my money back so I said fine, at least I didnt loose too much but it was still too much. I still will work to get my money back because while she seemed to be helpful and worked with me I should not have to pay for her deception. Will see how that goes and how the rest of the stay at the new place goes.
Oh and let's not start with the traffic and 1 million people. I mean there are 20 million people in the city, which. What? So taxis are short and the buses and trams are stuffed. We could not get a taxi to save our lives and the traffic would have taken us 1hr to go 5 mins. Think New York or LA traffic is bad, phew. We braved it and took the metro which is new and awesome, still in progress so I guess that's why, then we walked the rest of the way instead of transferring to the over packed trams. That took waaayyyy longer than it should, but we treated ourselves to the mall after. We needed the hess code we signed up for before travel to get in They just scanned one. I am not even sure which one I pulled up since I have them as screenshots and didn't know I needed them so I quickly pulled one up. It worked. Yay. We saw so many western places in the mall. And since we haven't seen or eaten at Carl's Jr since Vegas we stopped in. I know, WTH but man was it good and for $2.40 FOR AN ENTIRE MEAL. Sandwich unlimited drinks and fries. IN THE MALL haha we couldn't pass it up. We will enjoy living in that area with 3 malls, tourist attractions and all right in walking distance.
