Catching Up: Monday - January 19

Safely at our next destination and getting ready for bed, but wanted to post some updates for the last few days... Photos will come after the trip via Facebook!

Every morning around 5:00AM, from the hundreds of minarets around the city, comes the morning call to prayer. And so, at 5:00AM, I was awoken this morning by the sound coming from the minaret that happens to face the third floor window of my room. Total cultural immersion.

I went back to sleep after prayers were done, and woke up again at 8:00 for us to head out of the hotel for a day of adventure. Our first stop was the Museum of Science and Technology in Islam, located in Gülhane Park, just west of Topkapi Palace (and seemingly a portion of the original palace grounds) via Sultanahmet. On the way we grabbed the same breakfast as the day before.

The museum was quiet (we were the only visitors), but it was a good way to spend the hour. Each room was devoted to a different category of study, including geology, medicine, warfare technology and urban planning. There were some interesting models and displays, easy to casually browse.

From Gülhane, we headed just west along the coast to Eminönü to take a ferry tour up the Bosporus to the Black Sea. The boat departed at 10:30 and took just under two hours to traverse the 20 miles northward, making stops in Europe and Asia along the way. It was a phenomenal way to see the city and many of the most important sites.

The final stop is a small town on the Asian side of the Strait, at the Black Sea, called Anadolu Kavağı. About 50 people were onboard the ferry, and we all got off and headed into the little town. Consisting of only four or five little streets, the town was pretty quiet, and you could tell it lived on the tourists brought by the ferries from Istanbul. In the summer it is likely crowded with people, but in the winter things were pretty slow. As soon as we stepped off the boat, shop keepers began hounding everyone to come in for lunch.

It was only 12:15, so Tim and I quickly passed through town and began a trek up (and I do mean up) the bluffs overlooking the entrance to the Bosporus to the ruins of Yoros Castle. Instead of taking the main road, we climbed through the village, passing lots of dogs (which is a thing in Istanbul, too, but there were much more in the town), up a dirt road past abandoned cars and ramshackle houses. The scenery reminded me of what you would think eastern European or Russian town would be like. We continued the steep climb through an old cemetery before finally arriving at the top of the bluffs and the castle. The view was spectacular, and we could see the boats lined up in the Black Sea waiting to entering into the Bosporus one-by-one. Also visible were the towers for a new suspension bridge which will cross the Strait at the Black Sea mouth.

After we had our fill of views, we climbed back down via the main road up and got lunch of fresh calamari and mussels at a restaurant on the third story of a building looking out over the ferry dock and Bosporus. With two hours to kill, we wandered down the road along the coast and popped into the few shops to pick up snacks for the trip back to Istanbul. Ever the careful planners, we headed back to the ferry at 3:00, thirty minutes before the ferry was to leave.

As we arrived at the dock, we watched the ferry pull away. Apparently we missed the memo, and quickly realized we got ourselves in a bit of a tight spot, seeing as that was the only ferry to Istanbul that day! However, we regrouped and quickly determined that we could somehow make it back to the city by bus, and jumped on one that was waiting. While we couldn’t be sure where it was going, there was only one road out of the village, and with the Black Sea and Bosporus blocking the northern and western sides, we thought it was a safe bet it would head in the general direction we needed it to go.

No one on the bus spoke English, so it was a bit of a guessing game as the bus wended its way up massive hills, through the countryside, and into small villages. Using some context clues, and knowing just enough of the names of areas in Istanbul, we managed to jump off the bus at a random small village that we thought we could catch a bus connection to Kadiköy – a neighborhood on the Asian side of Istanbul where we could catch a city ferry to Europe. Fortune was on our side, and a bus (almost) stopped that was heading that direction, and with the last credit on our travel card (we were really, really lucky), we jumped on the (moving) bus and were on our way.

The trip to Kadiköy took over an hour and a half, passing through the outskirts of Istanbul before traversing the newer areas and highrises on the Asian side of the city. It was a great way to see a lot of Istanbul we never would have seen, and while we can’t say it was intentional, the entire thing was rather fortuitous.

The bus arrived at the port just in time for us to catch a ferry to either Kabataş or Eminönü as the sun began to set. As the ferry docked, people began jumping off the front of it before it was moored and the ramps were deployed; between jumping on moving buses and off of moving ferries, safety regulations aren’t quite on par with those in the US.

Not having decided particulars, we elected to go to Kabataş, hoping to get to stop into a store which was highly recommended for its Turkish delight. Located on İstiklal Caddesi, we trekked up the massive hill to Taksim from Kabataş. Unfortunately our luck for the day ran out, as when we walked up to the store, it was closing. Undeterred, we retraced our steps from last night down İstiklal and across Galata Bridge to head over the Golden Horn to the Grand Bazaar. Open until 7:00, as we made our way up the narrow street to the front gate of the market, they were closing the doors.

We returned the way we came, heading to Haliç metro station to catch a train to the north side of the city to have dinner at Hilary’s parents’ place at the İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi (Istanbul Technical University) located at Ayazağa. The trip didn’t take that long, and we got there around 7:45, enjoying a walk around the neighborhood (the financial center of the city, with shiny new highrises and a few Starbucks) before Paul met us at the gate (all universities are gated, he explained) at 8:15. We headed through the campus, down a big hill, to their housing, which took about 20 minutes. Along the way, we had a great view out across the Bosporus to the highrises in Asia. The campus had a lot of dogs running around, like the rest of the city.

Linda made a fantastic Turkish dinner of manti (basically Turkish lamb ravioli) covered in yogurt and spices, accompanied by mezes (small plates, like tapas) of green beans, eggplant and cucumber and tomato salad. For dessert we got to sample Turkish delight they had picked up during their travels around the country. From one region it was made of grapes, another with pistachios, a third with almonds. They were all very delicious!

It got late very quickly, and we hurried out to catch the last metro (around midnight). We took the train to Vezneciler and walked along the tram line to Çemberlitas and then down to Sultanahmet on the way home.