Last Day in Istanbul. Or Is It?

Traditional Turkish coffee (and hookah) in a converted madrassa in Istanbul

Last day for now in Istanbul.

Last day's in cities where I have a flight to catch later in the day are days when not much tourisming gets done. So the agenda was light on activities but heavy on local flavor. The owner of the hotel where I'm staying took me to a traditional coffee house in a converted madrassa (religious school).

This must be place.

This definitely was an off-the-beaten-tourist path experience. And it was awesome, even though I only had Turkish coffee and no drags on the hookah pipe. Even though the hookah pipe was loaded with apple-scented tobacco.

After that, I saw beneath the ground floor of my hotel.

The ceramics on the underneath are there for decoration, but, like much of Istanbul née Constantinople, it was built directly on top of something that was there before.

And the Istanbul part of the day ended in one of the best ways an Istanbul day can end: with kunefe. 

The hotel served me up an excellent kunefe. Gratis.

Soon it was time to jet my way to the next stop on this trip: Sarajevo.

The hotel is right near the Latin Bridge, where World War I started with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. It is an historic hotel.

That is the phone in the room. Of course, it is a non-functional phone. Who uses hotel room phones nowadays with all of us carrying our personal cellphones everywhere. But it lends to the historical atmosphere of a hotel where the rooms are opened with -- get this -- metal keys.

But was this my last day in Istanbul this trip? I have two nights back here, which means one day, at the end of the trip.