September 7th, 2012 
Getting around...
 

  On Friday September 7th we had to go back to the mall where the grocery store, which is called Kipa is located.  The hotel and hospital are great because they have transportation to and from the mall several times a day.  I usually get enough to eat dinners for about 3 days.  Breakfast of course is eaten  downstairs at the hotel and lunch we usually eat out unless we are here at the hotel.  There is a cafe and a cafeteria in the hospital as well for those that don't want to cook.  On this particular day we totally screwed up and missed the shuttle back to the hotel because I read it wrong.  Unfortunately we had to take a cab back which set me back 28 TL.  

  This trip we have spent a lot of our money in transportation.  Unfortunately the train station that was close is now closed going towards the European side all the way to Pendik.  That is eight stops which strangely equals a 42TL cab ride to the Pendik train station and a 30TL cab ride home.  The taxi drivers from the hospital are much more expensive and to be honest I am almost positive when we were here in the spring that it was only about 25 TL to the same place. The trains, ferries, and trams are very inexpensive but it can add up when you need to use all three twice per trip.  I might see if the free shuttle from this hospital to the other Anadolu hospital in Suadiye will drop us off on the way.   

  By the way if you are coming over here it is a very good idea to buy an Istanbulkart card to travel.  They can be purchased at the kiosks around the train stations and ports.  I believe we got ours on the European side at a kiosk outside of the Eminonu port, but I bet they would have them at the kiosk at the Pendik train station.  It is basically a credit card that you load and swipe at each public transport station.  The kiosks can load money as well or some places like the Bostaci ferry port have machines to load the cards too.  

   

More to come on my journey...

Kelly