Istanbul, Day 3

Istanbul, Turkey

 

Saturday brought another overcast and cool day in Istanbul (around 10 Celsius). After seeing most of what I wanted to see in Sultanahmet and the surrounding area, I decided to head back down towards the water and explore the north side of Istanbul.

To get there, I did a quick tour of the Topkapi Palace, though with rather steep admission fees I only toured the basic grounds around it and didn't actually go inside. From there, I headed east towards the water and the Sea of Marmara, following the coast line towards the Golden Horn. Istanbul is more or less divided into three areas by water. There is the old part of town, in the south/south-west region. To the north and across the Golden Horn body of water is the newer part of Istanbul and to the east, across the Bosphorus is what they call the Asian side. (The other two parts of Istanbul are considered to be in Europe, while the eastern part is considered part of Asia.) Check out this very basic map to get a basic idea of how things are laid out.

 

Rounding the shoreline and into the Golden Horn, I came across hundreds of fisherman fishing along the shoreline. It was crazy, both in how many there were and in the waters that they were fishing in. Just imagine a huge row of men standing along the shoreline, several hundred meters long, all with those huge fishing rods that you use when fishing from shore. As I neared the Galata Bridge I could see hundreds more lining the bridge itself. It must just be shear luck if you catch something because with so many lours in the water, it's not like you're is going to stick out any more then the other hundred right beside you.

 

I headed over the bridge and towards the Galata Tower, which is supposed to offer great views of the city but wanted yet another entrance fee that was just not worth it. (You could quickly blow a weeks food budget paying for all these entrance fees, and the fees in Istanbul seem particularly steep). Getting to the tower involved walking up some pretty steep and narrow streets, which reminded of a few streets in San Francisco, though not nearly as straight or wide as those stateside.

 

From the tower I kept walking north and up the hill towards Istanbul's main commercial center and main pedestrian street called Istiklal Cad. Being a Saturday, the street was packed with people and all the popular brands had flagship stores in this area. What was interesting is that if you went off the main drag, just one or two blocks over, you fell right back into a sort of bazaar environment, but an upscale bazaar of narrow streets with glass front stores and cobblestone streets. Instead of flocking clothing and jewelry, I came across the musical instrument section, with dozens of shops selling guitars, drums, keyboards and the like. I guess like auto-malls back home, it makes sense to group like stores together, but it's funny when you see so many places all apparently selling the exact same thing, one right beside the other. No idea how one place out sells the other. (Though as a side note, I did hear a great line back in the Grand Bazaar with one salesman telling a tourist couple to purchase rugs from him because the guy down the alley just buys his rugs from him. One has to wonder how many unique vendors there really are in these bazaars...)

 

Continuing along Istiklal Cad, you eventually hit Taksim Square, which is billed as the heart of modern Istanbul. It's sort of like their Times Square, Union Square or Picadilly Circus, though with seemingly less billboards and neon. (There's a park in the middle and the square itself seems surrounded by western hotels.)

 

One interesting thing of Istanbul, especially for a city of over 15 million people, is that the Istanbul skyline has very few tall buildings. Those tall buildings that you do see, almost always tend to be western hotels. The Ritz Carleton is a perfect example, which looks like a huge office building from the south side of Istanbul, but once you get to Taksim Square, you realize the building is nothing more then a hotel. There's certainly no obvious "downtown" or financial center anchored by high rises that is common in the west.

 

From Taskim Square, I took my time wandering all the way back to Sultanahmet, which is a distance you wouldn't normally walk if you lived here, but when you're a tourist you tend to walk much farther then you would ever walk if you were a local. Crossing back over the Galata Bridge into old Istanbul, I went back to the Egyptian Bazaar to explore the famous spice section of it. This is where you really feel like you're at the crossroads of some great trading route. Stall after stall of exotic spices with incredibly vibrant colors. In between are stalls selling seafood, meats, cheeses and various other produce. (Oh, and the alley of scales and the alley of safes aren't far away, not to mention the wicker alley for everything wicker related, the stainless steel alley for all your stainless steel needs and the house hold items alley, for, you guessed it, all your household items...)

 

Being a Saturday evening, the Egyptian Bazaar was packed with both locals and tourists. So many people it was intense at time. Normally I'd be content to just "go with the flow" in a crowd like that, but it doesn't take long before you actually start having fun pushing people around. You feel like an ass at first, but after you've been pushed aside a half dozen times you realize it's either sink or swim and it becomes kind of fun...

 

I eventually made my way through both the Egyptian Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar to make myself back to my new hostel for the night. I chilled down in the common room for a bit with the few people that were staying there, then headed back across the street to the Orient Hostels bar for an hour or so, before returning to me room to crash. One nice thing about an empty empty hostel is that I have a room all to myself. Granted, I realized after the fact that I'm paying a bit more for this room then I need to be paying (I could have stayed in a 6 or 8 person room for less, but I didn't realize the hostel was so empty) but whatever.

 

Unfortunately, the weather has been overcast and cool most of the time that I've been here. With the discovery that I can't really make it down to the Mediterranean coast, I'm probably going to head east towards Turkey early next week, stopping off in a region called Cappadocia, which is supposed to have some amazing natural wonders caused by unique erosion. Ideally I'd like to leave sooner rather then later, but at a minimum I have to stick around till Monday to pay a visit to the Syrian consulate to find out about getting a visa for that country. Hopefully that will be straight forward and won't take long, but I worry that I've that's a multi-day wait I might have to re-arrange some plans...

 

It's Sunday afternoon right now and for the first time traveling there's a steady rain falling. I haven't had great weather to date, but I have for the most part avoided the rain, until now. It's not falling all that hard, so I'll probably venture out a bit, but with most things closed on a Sunday it's probably better to catch up on email and my journal.

 

Kenny