Joanne along the Silk Road: Day two Istanbul

September 15.

I got to the airport super early, there was some confusion with my online check-in and I was not confident about the metro.

Yesterday, day 2, I woke up at 6:30. Definitley better than 4:30 the day before. I got up, abluted, and hit the breakfast buffet where I wrote my last post. It was a crazy post that took a bit longer than usual, so I was running a bit late for my next walking tour, Two Continents.

I took the Funicular to the tram and the tram to where I needed to go, but I missed my stop! By the time I walked back and found the meeting point, I missed the start. My guide dropped me a pin. Does anyone notice how much more computer savvy I am when I'm travelling! Necessity is the mother of figuring $hit out!

The first part of the tour was supposed to be Topaki Palace. I missed all of that. I really do need to come back to Turkey, as soon possible. I did not see nearly enough.

Anyway, I caught up just as we were exiting the palace grounds. I honestly do not rememeber much about what he talked about and I don't even think I took many pictures. Let me look...

Cat habitat

Fishing off the bridge

tour guide talking about something or other,
history of the orient express and Agatha Christie I think

We all boarded the ferry to the Asia side. It was the 'small boat' so it was crowded. Hard to get to the railing to get some pictures.

Three cruise ships in town!

20 minutes later, we were in Asia. For those unfamiliar with Istanbul geography, the city is cut into three sections by the Bosperous Sea which devides the Eupope side from the Asian side. The European side is cut in half by the Golden Horn, a long bay. The south of the Golden Horn is Old Town, and north is New Town. I crossed the bridge between old and new town a lot. My hotel was in new town, all of the touristy things are in old town. My dinner date the night before was a restaurant on (under but over the water) the bridge.

Anyway, back to Asia. First stop, a mosque. History of how the women in a Sultan's life, wife, sister, mother, tended to be the ones who commissioned these beautiful mosques.

I know it is early days but I am kind of over mosques. They are all looking the same at this point.

Unlike cats, which all look completely different and I will NEVER be over seeing cats.

Cat

This was the system for telling time so that
the call to prayer could go out accurately

Bird 'castles' on the mosque wall

Nowhere is safe from napping cats

And that was the tour. considering we hit two continents, it was short, especially so since I missed the first part.

Our guide had told up about community restaurants that are subsidized by the government. He said there was a particulary nice one nearby so a few of us wondered over there. The hostess was trying to tell us something about the 'dome'. We had come to see the stainglass dome but we did not know what she was saying. I seemed bad since several people left the line. But we were undeterred. The guy went in, looked up and left. The girl and I joined forces to get a table.

We assume the hostess had been saying it was full. Ha! Full is relative. Using my new 'talk to strangers' skills, I invited us to join a couple of guys. They were happy to have us. It didn't hurt to have Mercedes with me, I'm sure. They even paid for our tea.

The Dome. The restaurant is also a library.

Mahmet and also Mahmet

Mercedes, a ticket to any table.

Abdullah met me there and we went to see another area of the Asia side. We started where the ferry landed in Uskudar. We took a mini-bus. Never my favourite but this one was very civilized and they didn't cram in more people than seats. We got out in Kodikoy. Which I learned is near the stadium. And Turkey was playing Germany that day in some pre-situation before the EuroCup. The fans were in full garb (blue and yellow as far as the eye could see) and very vocal, and I assume getting progressively drunker.

We went for lunch. It was kind of mayhem. I have a video, let's see if I can upload.

One person would say something and the whole street would respond in song.

I paid for lunch, just so you don't think I a total mooch

It was kind of fun. Abdullah wanted to walk to the stadium but we had left overs from lunch so change of plans. Instead we took a taxi to his apartment where his brother was standing in the street to take the food and then we were off, back to Uskudar and the ferry back to the European side.

Despite rediculous appearances,
I figured out this was not a date.

A very elaborate police station

The most successful fisherman on the bridge

Sunset

Abdullah and I had a drink near the cruise ships. It was easier to find a place that served wine close to the tourists He tried to convince me to go back to his carpet store. It took me a while but I figured out our time together was him working a client. I'm good, I like the one I got thank you for a fun couple of days, and good night. I guess I'll have to rethink those Greece plans 😄. He did still walk me to the tram station and gave me another hug. If anyone is coming to Istanbul, I can offer a free tour guide, as long as you need a carpet.

I fell asleep immediately when I got back to my room around 8:30 and woke up at 1:30. NYT games until I fell back asleep. I slept in until almost 9 this morning! I spent way to much time paffing around with Turkish Airlines check-in. Long story short, that airport code change meant I could not check in online and had to do it at the airport.

Turkish Air doesn't just have a Business Class line for check in, they have a special room with chairs and free water strewn about. And they didn't carp about how long I was going to be in the lounge.

Now I wait, I will be in Bishkek in the morning.

Here is a couple of more videos since the other ones seem to have uploaded.

See you in Kyrgyzstan!

Oh, here is the hotel cat in her many functions.