Our first view of ‘Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet’ was from the rooftop terrace of a neighbouring restaurant. From there, in between sipping a Turkish coffee and a cherry juice while relishing the astonishing views of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia, the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea, we gazed down into the hotel’s manicured, flower-filled courtyard, which had once been the exercise yard of a Turkish prison. It was our first morning in Istanbul, we had an epic tour of Europe ahead of us – plenty to be excited about, but there was also a certain thrill in knowing that we would be returning to the city for the final two days of our trip and staying one night at each of Istanbul’s stunningly-different Four Seasons’ properties.
One month later, we flew back into Istanbul and checked into Four Seasons at The Bosphorus. It proved to be a palace, not only in the ‘19th century Ottoman Atik Pasa mansion’ sense of the word but also in the ‘contemporary palatial luxury accommodation as only-Four-Seasons-knows-how’ sense of the word.
A view of the Bosphorus from a hotel room is a dream that many potential visitors to Istanbul will nurture. It’s a worthy dream, and from the cushioned seat of our bay window, we were treated to a mesmerising, moving picture of teak-decked fishing boats, huge oil tankers and cargo ships, pilot boats, tugs, ferries, cruise liners, schooners and super yachts meandering towards the majestic Bosphorus Bridge, which connects Europe with Asia.
The following day, we left the commanding beauty of the Bosphorus for the confines of a Turkish jail. Thankfully, instead of being a Midnight Express nightmare, this was another one of those worthy dreams, and the perfect place to recoup on the final night of our grand tour of Europe.
How ironic that we should feel privileged to stay in an ex-jailhouse that was once home to some of Turkey’s most illustrious prisoners, including dissident poet Nazım Hikmet, although not – as I had mused – to Billy Hayes, the protagonist of Midnight Express. In reality, our feelings of gratitude had much to do with the quintessentially Four Seasons’ service, combined with an upgrade to a lavish duplex suite fit for a sultan. Positioned within a quadrilateral corner of the building, with views of the cobbled streets, the Sea of Marmara, and the rooftop terrace of the restaurant where we had breakfasted on our first morning, our splendid suite was a prisoner’s fantasy.
We had already spent several energetic days exploring the city at the beginning of our trip, so we had decided that our final weekend in Istanbul would be all about relaxation. How lovely that we were treated to a late checkout, which enabled us to while away some time with a few rounds of backgammon while the call to prayer echoed from the famous Blue Mosque nearby. I couldn’t help thinking that the former detainees would have surely engaged in the same activity, hushed by the muezzin’s call, all those years ago.
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