Hi there! Johnnie has already Blavelled on Istanbul so this is a follow up one from the last few days we spent there.
Our time in Istanbul was 5 nights and it was fabulous! Our hostel was great, you could see the sea from the hostel rooms, breakfast was served on the rooftop and the last night they held a BBQ and fireworks on the rooftop too. The city itself was interesting and fascinating too. It was crazy busy with people everywhere (heaps of tourists!) and the traffic was chaos with the drivers beeping constantly. We figured out that they beep to warn pedestrians they’re coming; they beep when they’re annoyed and they beep when they see someone they know. They also have no hesitation to come to a complete stop if this is the case and will spend the next few minutes chatting while stopped in the middle of the road!
We found everyone to be really nice and helpful although we noticed how many men there were everywhere! There were about 10 men for every woman so this made us wonder how single girls and/or groups of girls would go and sure enough some girls we met at the hostel said that they had men following them on 2 separate occasions! I had no trouble because of big strong Johnnie (he he he) but for a while I was getting really hassled by shop keepers until I read somewhere that Turkish women don’t make eye contact with men on the street so I started to follow their example and when they would start hassling me I wouldn’t look at them but would just walk past with my hand up in the universal ‘no’ signal and it would stop them dead in their tracks! From then on Johnnie made me walk first! LOL
OK, so day 1 we arrived after a good flight and found our way to the hostel. We had to catch a train then a tram to get there and it was pretty hard coming from a 17 degree London day to about 30 or so in Istanbul dragging suitcases on cobbled streets and up and down stairs! But as already mentioned the hostel was great! We found an awesome restaurant that night and had dinner on the rooftop watching the moonlight on the Marmara sea. Not bad!
On day 2 we spent a fair bit of time researching and booking our next lot of travel to Santorini. We were actually only supposed to be in Istanbul for 4 night but we had to stay 1 more night because we thought it would only take 2 days by train and ferry to get to Santorini but we were so wrong! We would have had to island hop heaps and catch ferries in the middle of the night AND it was going to take at least 3 to 5 days AND end up costing us the same as a flight soooo.... we choose to book a flight! Anyway, also on day 2 we took a walk along the waterfront where we noticed a massive boys club going on! There were heaps of men in groups just hanging out on the rocks and swimming and fishing. After that we walked through the gardens of Topkapi palace and just generally checked out the local area. We had dinner that night at a different restaurant which wasn’t so good this time.
Day 3 shall hereby be known as the bad day. I woke up sick, or should I say, I was awake all night sick. Having made numerous dashes to the toilet (sorry, no more shall be written on this subject) I decided that sick or not I wanted to do the Bosphorus tour we had planned for that day. So we caught a tram down to Eminou and jumped on board a state run ferry that took 1.5 hours up the Bosphorous to A.Kavangi then there was a 3 hour wait and then the 1.5 hour ferry ride back. I think Johnnie already wrote about this so anyway, I shall move on. That night we tried our hardest to find a cheaper dinner so we asked for a take away kebab from a local cafe. Mine was OK but the meat in Johnnie’s was off so we ended up sharing mine and also buying a 1 lira corn cob from a street vendor which was soooo not as good as it looked! Very disappointed!
Day 4 I woke up even sicker then the day before and couldn’t have gone out much even if I had wanted to so I just stayed in bed almost all day although we did manage to check out the Blue Mosque in the afternoon. We were staying really close to the Blue Mosque actually and also Aya Sofia, it was a great location! That night we went back to the awesome restaurant we found on the 1st day and Johnnie ordered some dish that he can’t remember the name of but man, was it good! I can’t even begin to describe the taste but it was tender lamb pieces on top of a sauce of some kind that is the best thing I have tasted in my life! My meal was also good but I was too sick to eat much of it L so I just enjoyed the delicious Turkish tea instead!
Day 5 I was good (hurrah!) so we checked out the Grand Bazaar which was very very fun! Oh, if only I had more money and another suitcase (preferably with someone else carrying it though!) so I could have gone nuts in the bazaar! So very many cool things to buy! I was surprised that we didn’t get hassled as much as I thought we would. I was warned that they would be so persistent that before you knew it you’d be drawn into their shop sharing a cup of their (excellent) tea before you walk away with less money in your pocket! It actually wasn’t like that at all. Anyway, after that we had a look through the Topkapi palace and saw some stunning mosaic tiles and mother-of-pearl inlay furniture. We also walked around the local area a bit more and then had the BBQ on the rooftop of the hostel so it was a fantastic day! We had a mixture of BBQ’d Turkish meat, salad, potato and yummy rice and then they served apple tea which I have decided is the best tea in the world! After dinner they brought out water pipes which we both tried and then we had fireworks! I didn’t find the water pipes very strong, I mean, it didn’t make me go light headed or anything. Apparently there isn’t much tobacco in it so it’s not very strong but you can taste the flavoured water which is pretty cool. Oh, we also tried Raki, the local spirit; it tasted just like Sambucca to me! So that’s it! That night was without doubt the best way to spend our last night in Istanbul and I’ll never forget it!
Just some other random thoughts... some of the toilets are OK in Istanbul but most are the hole in the ground variety... you also have to pay for them – everywhere!
The temperature was hot but really nice because it was quite OK in the shade which there was a lot of because of the gardens everywhere. Also, we noticed that nothing much happens until 2 or so in the afternoon and it especially gets going once the sun has gone down.
The Turkish know how to do a nice outdoor sitting area! All the restaurants and cafes had the best chairs and cushions and rooftop seating areas I’ve ever seen. I loved it!
The young Turkish women who wore head scarves were very very trendy! I loved the colours they wore and they were always matching their head scarves to their dresses.
Oh, and lastly, the call to prayer that happens 5 to 6 times a day is actually quite hauntingly beautiful. It’s really nice to sit there and hear the call go out, it’s comforting for some reason???
So that’s all! Stay tuned for the Santorini post to come.
X Sharon
