| “ | The Hotel Hagia Sophia was pure dead fancy. | ” |
The Hotel Hagia Sophia is the hotel in which Alek, Klopp, and Bauer stay when they first reach the Ottoman Empire. The lobby is three stories high, with two gas chandaliers and stained glass roof. The hotel uses steam elevators. It is near the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul.
In the series[]
Alek and Bauer leave the hotel to find out information about the Clanker powers. At the front desk of the hotel, they discover that it is Ramadan. When Alek meets Eddie Malone in a coffee shop, he asks for Malone to deliver a message for Count Volger so that Volger can find him in a hotel that shares Alek's mother's name.
Deryn hears the message at the same time that Volger hears it, and is the only one who is able to reach Istanbul. She looks up Alek's mother's name in a Hapsburg family tree, and ask a taxi driver for "Hotel Sophie". She orders lamb at the hotel dining room while she waits for Alek, Klopp, or Bauer. She eventually sees Alek and Lilit, and follows them into the steam elevator. Alek introduces Lilit and Deryn to each other in his room, and he and Lilit agree to introduce Deryn to the Committee for Union and Progress.
When Alek takes Bauer and Klopp to meet the Committee and show Klopp their walkers, they must hijack a taxi walker to avoid being recognized by the Germans. Afterwards, they cannot return to the hotel, but Alek unfortunatly left his letter from the pope there and he must return to get it back a week later.
Lilit rents a room in the hotel near Alek's so that it will be easier to break into the room from the balconies . While Alek and Deryn are retrieving the letter, Alek tells Deryn that Lilit has a crush on her, and about the contents of the letter. Deryn also tells him about the behemoth that the British are sending on September 19.