Advertisement
Published: September 28th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Fish sandwich shop
Contrary to what Tim wrote, I did not get sick from a fish sandwich. Did you know that Turk-haters call Istanbul Constantinople? Need to make sure we don't make that mistake! We arrived in Istanbul on Friday morning. Customs of course takes some time, so we make it into the city in the early afternoon. We decide to walk around and get our bearings, and end up walking all over Istanbul. This is one crazy town (people...you to need to visit -- take note Attfields and Bob Meyer)!! We're in the Beyoglu area where all the restaurants, bars, and cafes are located. We walk over to the Sultanahmet area where the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, and Topkapi Palace are located. On the way we walk over Galata bridge, pass the hundred or so fisherman (fishing off the bridge in the middle of the city -- Soth Chin would like this), through the store-laden tunnels to bypass major roads, along with hundreds of other tourists and Istanbullers. We stop at three decorated fishing boats where they are selling fresh caught fish, grilled and put into a small loaf of bread. Lunch looks like its a fish sandwich! Hold the onions please.
We walk all over the place, getting our first dose of the call to
prayer. Then on to home where Vic starts to feel not so great (shocker...see fish sandwich); seems like the cold ferry and cold Istanbul are not setting too well with her. I decide to stay in, we've got four nights here afterall, and take some nyquil. Tim goes out to scout the scene and comes back with some chicken soup from a chinese joint. Aw.
Next morning, Vic still doesn't feel great, can barely speak, but we go out anyways as we knew it was supposed to rain the other days we are here. Did we mention its cold here??? Its about 67 degrees (get thee to the Islands!). That's cold when all you packed were shorts and t-shirts. Might need to buy some sweaters in the Grand Bazarre. We go on a ferry ride up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea (thanks for the suggestion Zach/Sarah/Nazar/Mike). On the way up we pass all these different palaces, castles, and rich Istanbul suburbs. We reach the last point, climb up to a ruined castle and are awarded with a great view of the Black Sea . We head back down for a Turkish meal - our first experience of waiters
bringing out little plates of meze, us guessing what they are and pointing at what looks good. We end up with a small dish of "con chile" some sort of tomato-chili dip, and what seems to be baba ganoush. We get back around 5 and hit the spice market. Can't say much about the spice market- check out the pictures, its amazing. Let's just say in all the markets in Istanbul, you can get whatever you want, they have everything here. We decide we'll come back on Monday and stock up.
Back to the hotel and on to dinner. We hit a meyhune which is a meze type place (the book describes them as spanish tapas bars meets Irish pub) along a street called Nevizade. On this two block street there must be 25 or so of these restaurants. There are street musicians playing, and the locals are singing along. Meze is displayed, you take a guess and pick some, Raki (like Ouzo) is poured and you've made friends with your neighbors. The man next to Tim starts talking to us, and soon we have a recommendation for a kepab place for the next day, a fake-goods store in
Dubai recommendation (complete with owner's name), and his wife has read my future in my coffee grounds. Apparently I will have two celebrations soon (only two?). Highlight of the evening, they order us a pastry for desert, a turkish aphrodisiac. There has been a language barrier with his wife, she seemed not to speak english, but she definitely understood Tim when he questioned what the desert would do. Good times. Hours later (and much Raki later) we go to a bar called James Joyce (there's Irish bars, Walkers favorite, everywhere!) where a Turkish band played cover songs (not so great), but the lead singer had a great Irish accent!
On Sunday, day 26 of the trip and our second full day in Istanbul, we took our time getting going and then headed up to the Blue Mosque. We got there around prayer time, which was an interesting moment to be there-- all the men praying in the main hall and the women praying upstairs and behind the men's area. It was very eye-opening. We then went to the Topkapi palace for a few hours. The Haram was the best part of the palace, very ornate and sumptuous, you could
picture the 200 some women laying around on cushions being served by men (the way it should be 😉. We got our excercise by trying to make it back to the Beyoglu area in 40 minutes, so that we could see a whirling dervish performance. It took us 50, and we were hoofing it! We got there late so he gave us 2 for 1 tickets. We made out in that deal! Whirling dervishes were interesting, men who spin in circles as a kind of prayer to achieve nivana. Back to hotel to relax before dinner. We considered hitting another Irish bar where they were playing American football on the television. Instead, since that was the other side of town, we did a nice rooftop dinner in a trendy restaurant near the hotel. It was late...but the place was just getting started.
Monday was shopping day. Time to determine how are negotiating skills rank with the Turks. Certainly the Meyer ladies would have had a field day shopping here! First, we find a sony store in one of the underground tunnels and buy a camera cord! (get ready for the onslaught of photos) So after a quick visit to
the Basillica Cistern, an amazing ancient underground water system , we hit the Grand Bizarre. How Bizarre! How Bizzare! A day of shopping in Istanbul. So we were looking for a backgammon board, scarfs, t-shirts (we missed out on buying these in Greece), spices, and the other great things that you can buy. The big haggling was an effort to buy a really nice backgammon board. Vic was bad cop (won't pay over x) while Tim was good cop (but that's a great deal). The process worked well. Tim even got to play the sales guy a quick game (and kicked his behind). So we shopped until about six...now time for a Turkish bath. Wow...these are the greatest! We both had a bath. It was a beautiful 400 year old marble room where he hit the hot room, got an amazing massage, and a great scrub (never been cleaner!). Tim's guy even walked on him, thankfully mine didn't as she was a pretty large Turk woman. Truly a wonderful experience in Istanbul.
Well the day was not over. We then went back to the Blue Mosque (lugging all our purchases, mind you) for the Iftar (breaking of fast) festival.
That was nice to see the celebration. Exhausted! We were able to do a late dinner and a few games of backgammon at an outdoor bar near our hotel, complete with popcorn from a vendor the old fashioned way- a pan over hot coals. Istanbul was done! Flying out on day 29. We spent that day relaxing, sending back our purchases to the states (thanks Ken and Daniel...don't open!), and packing.
Now it is off to Dubai. We are a little behind on the blog...so look for multiple updates this week. Sorry about that!
Wishing everyone the best. We hear there is a little financial crisis? We need jobs when we get back, so get 'er passed!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.044s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0219s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb