Istanbul day 5

Stephen stayed at the apartment while we took a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul and the market over there. On the ferry there was a young girl playing a piano accordion on the way over and two guys selling lemon juicers on the way back! We checked out all the fresh produce on offer and had a Turkish lunch, including coffee, before returning to the European side of Istanbul.
Then we visited the Cistern, an artists cooperative after that and then back on a crowded but super cheap and efficient tram to the apartment.

Seagull keeping pace with the ferry for when someone throws food.	Fresh fish, gills inverted to prove it!
View looking back to the European side	Information re the Basilica Cistern
Inside the cistern	I have a photo of Frank wearing a hat like this one

Istanbul day 4

I didn’t make many notes for day 4 except for the fact that we visited the Dolmabahce Palace, followed by a pleasant lunch alongside the river. Stephen then went back to the apartment for a snooze while the three of us visited Taksim Square and a women’s cooperative before walking back to the apartment via a mosque under repair so that we could take in the view.

Views from the outside of the palace as	photos not permitted inside.
souvenir shopping	A rather nice view from the garden of a mosque being repaired. We were invited in by a young woman who lived there.

Istanbul day 3

Tuesday, after a couple of days recovery and a very tentative trip down the stairs and around the block yesterday, Stephen decided he was OK to come out with us. So we caught a cab to the Spice Market as we weren't sure how he'd go down the steep cobbled lanes and steps to the tram stop. We settled on a place that had a good variety of nuts, dried fruits and fruit and nut rolls (pomegranate and pistachio yum) and stocked up. Plus the fresh figs and pomegranates are to die for they are so so good!


Stephen was going OK, if a little slowly (which was fine) so we decided to top up the Istanbulkart and take the tram to the Grand Bazaar. "Grand" just doesn't do it justice the place is HUGE! Sadly a lot of the old buildings have hoardings around them. We'd like to think that they are in the process of being done up but sadly I think it might be because they are falling down. Where we are staying is an odd mix of new apartments and very old (historic) buildings, many of which are being restored. Which could possibly be Turkish for we have no money but we want to appear to be doing something so we put up this impressive hoarding with a picture on the front of what it used to look like, and who knows may again one day.

Istanbul day 2

So Monday Stephen was still pretty sore so Carol brought him in supplies for the day and the three of us headed off to the Blue Mosque, the Mosaic Museum, and the Aya Sofya. What incredible buildings and what a flood of humanity visiting both, especially the latter. There are people from the UK and all over Europe, the USA, China, Japan, Australia and who knows where else. It makes people watching from one of the thousands of cafes most entertaining. 

Small section of Aya Sofya

Interior of Blue Mosque

We were bailed up by a chap trying to "show us Turkish hospitality" (aka sell us a carpet or leather jacket) outside the Blue Mosque and we thought we had got rid of him but obviously weren't quite blunt enough as there he was sitting waiting for a second assault as we came out (quite some time later). Frank and Carol were very blunt with him this time and he finally left us alone, but not without following forlornly behind for a while as we made our way to the Mosaic Museum. You really need to be almost rude if you don't want to be hassled to death in Istanbul, which happily is not the case once you move out of the big cities. The restaurant touts in Istanbul were like those in Lygon street in Carlton only a hundred times worse!

First stop Istanbul

I must confess that Istanbul wasn't in the top ten of my bucket list, in fact it wasn't on my bucket list at all but a five word email from Carol back in February changed all that. The email simply said: "Do you want to come :-) " and there was an e-ticket to Turkey attached for September 2015.

We decided to start off with a week in Istanbul and after a bit of searching on the web found an apartment in the area that James had recommended right alongside the Galata Tower. The downside was that it was up five floors and there was no elevator, but Carol said that she and Stephen had stayed in a similar type of place in New York and that it wouldn't be a problem - that was before the accident!

Galata Tower

Our apartment as seen from the top of the Galata Tower

About 12 weeks before we were due to leave Melbourne Stephen took a tumble down an embankment at his friend Lewis' place in Bendigo, resulting in a broken arm which had to be pinned. When the pain killers from that wore off he realised his foot hurt, turned out he had torn his Achilles tendon in the fall. He was recovering well from all this and had been wearing the moon boot and following doctors orders when the week before we were due to leave he hurt his back. Well my Gran used to say bad luck came in threes, so I am not sure why it was Stephen's bag that didn't make it onto the last leg of the flight from Dubai to Istanbul!

Stephen had to be taken off the plane in a wheelchair after suffering a relapse of his bad back. After Frank had pretended to be Stephen and filled in all the necessary forms at lost luggage, Carol and Frank almost carried him up 5 flights of stairs. 

Sunday was a recovery day from the trip and wehad to leave Stephen home on his own but he was happy watching the motor cycle racing, playing music, watching the pedestrian traffic below etc. Anyway, the three of us just went for a long wander around on foot. Down to the edge of the water, over the Galata bridge on the pedestrian walkway below, not up top where the scores of fishermen line the bridge. Then up and down some of the myriads of cobbled laneways that carry everything from foot traffic to trucks and everything in between including an alarming number of motorcyclists without helmets. Fortunately being Sunday a lot of the shops lining the streets were closed, so that broke us in gently.

The noise in Istanbul is almost constant from the people having a good time in the bars and restaurants below, to the rattling bottles of what I think but be the garbos, to the honking horns which could be anything from a delivery truck to a taxi to just another impatient Turk on his way to or from work, the barking dogs, the twittering swallows (which are huge by the way) and of course the haunting call to prayer which almost became a substitute 5.30am alarm call :-) It took a bit of getting used to after just the sound of the waves crashing on the beach and the occasional passing vehicle! The funny thing was that when we got home Frank and I agreed that we had grown rather fond of the Muezzin’s call five times a day and missed it!

Cobbled streets of Beyoglu

Call to prayer from the Blue Mosque