The history of Istanbul’s Pera Palace Hotel is as storied as the building’s Art Nouveau facade. Built in 1892 to house passengers on the Orient Express, the hotel is located in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu neighborhood.
Aside from the Turkey’s imperial palaces, the hotel was the first building in the Ottoman Empire to be powered by electricity. Light still dances spectacularly across the marble walls, adorned in Byzantine stripes and topped with six domes full of beautiful blown glass.
From Hemingway to Graham Greene, numerous writers have used the hotel as a backdrop for their novels. Agatha Christie is said to have written Murder on the Orient Express during her time in residence.
Famous political faces have also walked the halls of the Pera Palace Hotel. US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy visited while she was roaming the Aegean as Jackie O. On the first floor, Room 101 contains a museum dedicated to President Ataturk, founding father of the Republic of Turkey.
Tea at the Pera Palace had been on my radar since last spring when my friend Bea recommended it while biding her time in Istanbul. Bea knows good taste! Our Sunday afternoon tea proved as lovely as expected. Red velvet curtains hung from the walls as we enjoyed profiterole, simit, and other delicious pastries.
Fun fact: in Turkish, “pasta” is the name for baked goods like cakes or pastries. My local bakery is called Ekmek Pasta Cafe (Bread Pastry Cafe). Erişte, meanwhile, is the Turkish word for “noodle”.
The ballroom was in recovery from a wedding the night before. Very Marie Antoinette in palette and tone, the clocks decorating the sitting room were reminiscent of Fabergé.
The Pera Palace Hotel proved the perfect spot to liven up a grey Sunday in late January and fabulous company proved an antidote to the Sunday Scaries. Wishing you all a wonderful start to the week!
The Turquoise Chronicles 
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div dir=”ltr”>Wow! The Pera is definitely a swanky hotel with lots of ornate chandeliers, furniture and window coverings! It’s fun to imagine many rich folks staying there back
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Very interesting.
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Beautiful and certainly not “minimalist”! What are the “Sunday Scaries”?
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Certainly not minimalist 😉 Sunday Scaries: The Sunday Scaries (or Sunday blues, as they’re sometimes called) are feelings of anxiety or dread that happen the day before heading back to work. According to a LinkedIn survey, 80 percent of professionals say they experience the Sunday Scaries, with over 90 percent of Millennials and Gen Z reporting they feel it.
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