EbTheRedHead: #hotelrooftop

I ended up taking an uber at 4:30am. I arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport around 5am. My flight was at 8am, but boarding time was at 7am. It was very confusing, but needless to say, I felt better getting there earlier than later. Once I boarded, I took a nap right away. I knew I had to get some sleep since I was going to land in Istanbul at 12pm. I still hadn’t figured out how to get to my hotel yet.

I was out of it once we landed. Since they had transferred flights to the new airport, I noticed right away how long it was taking us to get to our gate. Our pilot even reminded us that he had not taken off the remove-your-seat-belt sign. Passengers got back to their seat and waited. And waited. And waited. At first I felt the pilot was riding down the runway, but it took another 40 minutes until he pulled into our gate! How big was this airport???

Well, it was HUGE. Once we got off, it looked like a marathon race. Passengers were walking quickly to get to passport control, but after they realized how much walking was going on, they slowed down their pace. We must have passed at least 10 walking terminals until we reached check point. Luckily, that line wasn’t too bad.

Since I had my carry-on luggage with me, my only concern was trying to find a place to exchange my euros so I wouldn’t have to do it outside of the airport. The cashier took my bills, and once she asked for my passport, she looked at me and smiled and said, “America.” I smiled back at her and realized my nerves went away.

My friends whom I was meeting later in the evening were messaging me. They were still roaming around Naples. I told them I landed safely, but needed to have some coffee so I could wake up and figure out how to get out of there. According to google maps, there was a bus that would take me to Istanbul. It was going to take 2 hours! I was hoping that wasn’t true, but unfortunately they were right. By the time I figured out where the ticket booth was to catch this bus, it was nearing 3pm!

I was worried when I boarded the bus since I almost got on the wrong one. I was too busy following where everyone else was going, but the bus driver assured me I was on the right bus. Once the bus filled up, he was all set to go. Unfortunately, they were not going exactly according to schedule.

As we rode into the city, I took the opportunity to look out the window to check my surroundings. Once we got into the city, I felt a little bit better. But then I realized the traffic started to back up. That’s when I looked into the horizon full of buildings after buildings. Istanbul is HUGE!! I realized how populated it was. Sure enough, we got stuck in traffic, and the rest of the ride was bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I noticed palm trees and figured we were getting closer to the tourist part of Istanbul. I ended up missing my stop. I should have asked the bus driver but I knew something was up once the majority of people got off a stop. He reassured me he will drop me off the next stop, but it was towards the port area. A German lady tried to help me once we got off together and told me to head back to where I was supposed to get off. I walked along the water front and noticed all the families enjoying the weather. At this time, the temperature was nearing 80 degrees.

I felt I was way off course, but I knew I was going the right way. My friends were now making their way to Naples airport, but were surprised I hadn’t gotten to the hotel yet. After 30 minutes of walking I noticed a building up a hill that had a spike peeking out from the trees. I felt it was the Blue Mosque. I knew I was almost there.

I saw some tourists walking around and asked if I was near the Blue Mosque. I had to go up the hill (a nightmare with my luggage) but the cabs wouldn’t take me up the narrow road. Apparently, they were not allowed to go into the Old Town. Only the large charter buses got inside. I kept walking.

Of course, once I got inside the neighborhood, it took me another 20 minutes to find my hotel. This area was heavily populated with back to back hotels. A sweet old man came up to me after he found me standing in front of his hotel and asked if I was lost. He took the number of my hotel and called on his cell phone to find the exact location. So far everyone was super sweet to me.

I FINALLY found my hotel. I was exhausted. It was now 5:30pm. I had landed in Istanbul at

12pm and it almost took me 6 hours to get to my hotel. Unbelievable. I messaged my friends and told them I was safe. They’re flight was going to be delayed, but only for 20 minutes. I ended up knocking out for a bit. I slept for about 40 minutes, but wanted to have some dinner since by now I was starving. I jumped in the shower and got ready. When I checked in, the concierge told me people in Istanbul have dinner around 7 or 8pm. I knew I didn’t want to walk around by myself too late.

I walked down the street off my hotel and found a Bazaar. One particular restaurant looked lively, so I settled in there. They had live music playing. People seemed to be enjoying themselves. Others were ordering hookahs for their tables. I think I found the right spot!

The waiter was very friendly and I ordered the most delicious kabobs I’ve ever had in my life! At one point a whirling deverish dancer came out and twirled for the audience. I had to pinch myself! My first night in Istanbul was magical and I was loving it!

After going back and forth with my friend, I was slowly realizing we might jump on a plane in a few hours. I started to get anxious. NOT GOOD. All of the sudden, I had so much to do in such a short amount of time. As soon as I received the confirmation text, I knew we were set to go. She had a lot to do as well and we ended our conversation. She will be at my place at 4:15am. HOLY MOLY! What do I pack? I didn't want to check in any bags so I brought out my weekend bag. I figured I'll pack lightly since we'll be staying with a friend of hers. There was talk that others might be staying at his apartment, too, so I didn't want to have too much stuff with me.
I started to clean up frantically. Over the years I would have my New Year's Eve ritual of having a clean apartment, a stocked fridge, a packed suitcase by the door, as well as having my red underwear on underneath my clothes. I quickly grabbed my red undies so I wouldn't forget. I threw in a wrap dress I won on ebay months ago and checked the weather. It was barely 80 degrees, but I forgot how that felt like. lol. I packed in a pair of skinny black pants and a top if we went out the next day. I threw in two bikinis and my swim coverup and had some nude flip flops that I would use as my walking sandals. I decided to wear some blue skinny jeans on the plane, so I packed 2 casual tops in case we walked around. I also packed my gym clothes that I was going to use as my pajamas. Again, not sure how the living situation was going to be for the next two days, so I played it safe by sleeping in my gym clothes. lol
I finished cleaning up my apartment and then took a quick body shower and followed up with a self mani and pedi. I was too excited to go to sleep so I finished reading the end of my book and felt good about it. I knew it would be impossible to read out there and wanted to end that chapter of 2016.
I probably knocked out around 2:30am only to wake up to my alarm going off an hour later. I knew I wanted to sleep on the plane anyway so I didn't have a problem with this at all. I texted my friend to see if she was awake and jumped in the shower again to wash my hair. Everything was happening so fast. By the time I was getting dressed, she texted me that she was going to be at my place in 15 minutes. YIKES!
I had everything ready when she called me to let me know that she was downstairs. I rushed to meet her with my bags, but she had a present for me for Christmas. I ran back up to my place to drop the gift off and grabbed hers. She ordered the lyft and the next thing you know, he was waiting for us. My anxiety was getting the best of me. I just wanted to be on the plane so I could knock out and not feel this way. I could tell my friend was super excited but I warned her that I wasn't feeling so great. I needed her to understand how terrified I was getting on the plane. She could tell by my expression how worried I was and seemed to understand.

Hiding behind sunglasses. She was pretty excited. I wanted to sleep it off.

Everything at the airport was a blur. I remembered feeling a bit overwhelmed while we waited to board on. I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I just wanted us to be there already. I did manage to knockout on the plane and woke up right before we landed. I did it! We're on ground and we're safe!
We waited a while before her friend arrived. He was running behind schedule. I was slowly feeling my normal self but my friend never slept on the flight. She was still super excited we were in Miami for New Year's Eve. I was out of it, but since I was nervous about keeping food down, skipped on eating and now I was starved. Once he arrived, we agreed to go get breakfast.
We were in East Miami which was indeed, 20 minutes away from South Beach. The last time I was in Miami was almost 10 years ago with my ex. We had came down for the Winter Music Conference. Those were some crazy times, but because I came at the last minute, I had no idea what was going down tonight. It DID feel good to be away from Chicago. A change of scenery works wonders.
We went to a sportsbar called Batch which was around the corner from his place. I needed some coffee BAD but her friend had other things in mind! lol. It was way too early for me to drink but it dawned on me that our mini getaway was going to be insane! We were in MIAMI!!

Breakfast at Batch. I cleaned off my plate!

After a couple of hours at the bar, me and my friend realized that he was not going to move from his spot. We wanted to walk around and find the nearby mall he mentioned earlier. We took matters on our own hands and told him we would come back for him later. He was enjoying his time at the bar and we didn't want to interrupt him.
The mall was semi outdoor so it was cool to walk around. My friend desperately wanted to lay out. She figured we could kill two birds with one stone and nap in the process. We headed back to get our friend but he still wasn't ready to leave Batch. We wasted some more time there before we finally dragged him back to his place to drop off our stuff. He had a pool at his building and we wanted to lay out before the sun went away. It was cloudy in Miami but luckily no overcast. We changed into our bikinis and headed up. It was relaxing laying out. We took advantage of the time and dozed off.

As you can tell, cloudy day but not even sun to get any color. BOO!

We managed to get in 30 minutes of sleep, but whenever a big cloud would roll in, it covered the sun and we would get nippy. We stayed out about an hour before realizing it was 5pm now. He mentioned to us that he had some friends coming in around 6pm and we wanted to get a head start getting ready. My friend wanted to get a professional mani and pedi and luckily there was a salon across the street from his apartment. We walked back down to throw some clothes on, but our friend had never laid down to rest himself. He was still drinking. I was surprised he wasn't tired but he told us before we walked out that he was going to try to lay down a bit. We knew we had a long night ahead of us.
A lot of my friends found out through social media that we were in Miami. It was funny because my friends know how I am. I am hardly the spontaneous type. Not to mention, I didn't accept two invitations for other weekend getaways. I had some explaining to do! I texted back friends while my friend got her nails done. The salon owner came out and gave customers a glass of champagne. How sweet!
After about an hour at the salon we went back up to the apartment to check on our friend. Just like we thought so, he was completely knocked out. We took our time getting ready. My friend noticed that his phone was buzzing off the hook. He had his phone on silent but people were calling him like crazy. My friend had a back up plan on meeting other Chicagoans that were in Miami if this wasn't going to pan out. We were more worried about looking our best, so we continued getting ready.
Of course, like clockwork, our friend woke up. He knew his friends made it in and were waiting on him back at Batch. They did not know where else to go. He quickly got ready and we all walked over to find them.
Luckily his friends were in a good mood. They had been waiting for over an hour but ate in the meantime. We all introduced each other and didn't realize our friend had parked himself at the bar again. Me and my girl looked at each other and realized we might have a situation in our hands.
We were waiting on a 3rd friend to come by. We still had no clue were we were going to spend New Year's Eve at. Once the 3rd guy arrived we started to brainstorm. South Beach was out of the question. Our new friends insisted it would be too hard to get in anywhere this late in the evening. By now it was 10pm and we still had no idea where to go.
One of the guys closed out our friend's tab at the bar. At least he was proactive! lol. We gathered around and by the 3rd guy's suggestion, settled on going to Sugar, a hotel rooftop nearby. We took a walk over and got there in no time flat!
We made it inside and that's when we all started to get excited. WE FOUND A PLACE AND WE HAD TIME TO SPARE BEFORE MIDNIGHT! Once we got up to the rooftop, we ordered drinks right away. I was feeling good and our new friends were fun! Everything was perfect! Me and my girl hugged and kissed each other at the stroke of midnight. We made some amazing friends. We stayed there past 2am when our crowd was dwindling down. It was just me and my friend with the 2 guys waiting at Batch earlier. Since they drove down here, they were going to stay with us at our friend's place. We wanted to see what else was going on and they suggested a cigar lounge. We took a cab over there and made our way in. I was getting exhausted by now, but my girl was still going strong. Around 3am I couldn't take it anymore. My eyes were closing in on me and I had to go. My friend stayed out longer. I was impressed but as for me, it's lights out!