Having been delayed, rerouted, and cancelled umpteen times, we spent a short night sleeping on the benches of the new Istanbul airport. But our eventual flight turned out to be in the next evening, so we asked for a hotel room for the day.
Turkish Airlines -- to their credit -- complied. But the hotel, Novotel Istanbul Zeytinburnu, was at the old Istanbul airport, an hours drive away, so some time was wasted on that. I didn't end up having any time for more sleep, but decided to burn my precious hours at the hotel in a better way: in their sauna.
It was quite a small shower & sauna space, but any sauna is better than nothing, so I was happy.
The weather was cold... snowing, actually. I didn't go the pool. But I did go out to the balcony from the sauna to see the pool. I ended up being locked out, however, and was just lucky that the cleaners happened to pass by so that I could come back, wrapped only in a towel in the freezing wind.
More sauna stories at Saunablogger.cool! Photos and text (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. All sauna photos are taken with permission, when there have been no other guests, or when the facilities have been closed.
This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.
"Mongolia is kind of close, right? Story about an attempt to ski everywhere in the world where there's snow. And in some places where there isn't. On and off-piste skiing on all continents, skiing into craters of live volcanoes, climbing, photography, and travel." The Planetskier blog focuses on skiing, caving, climbing, biking, flying, sauna, and swimming adventures around the world. See the other Planetskier blog articles about skiing, caving, urban exploration, climbing, cycling, flying, swimming, and saunas.