Turkey - Istanbul

It seemed far too early as we got up to head to the airport to fly to Turkey – less than a week ago I had been at work, not resigned, not expecting to get gardening leave – all very strange! So I was quite excited but also a bit daunted by all the plans we had started to set in motion. We were still trying to plan trips to Argentina, and still weighing up the options of Tanzania vs Kenya vs South Africa vs Namibia for the last part of our common leave period...

So, off to the airport we went. It was a very early start, but we had some muesli, headed to the tube, fought with nasty rush hour traffic at Kings Cross to squeeze on to a Piccadilly line train to Heathrow, and were all checked in and thru security by 10am. Not too bad. I was pleasantly surprised by the Turkish Airlines plane when we got on as well – a new 777, with (of all things) laminate flooring in the common areas – weird! There were some strange fellow passengers on the plane, varying from new funky style Turks to old stumpy ladies all dressed in black. Strangest of all was the young man across the aisle from me who kept swigging from a duty free bottle of scotch, then hiding it under the blanket on his lap. Maybe a nervous flyer? On a different time zone since it was still before lunch time.

I made use of the in-flight on-demand entertainment, watching Bride Wars (rubbish as expected). SS slept and watch Appaloosa (also rubbish apparently).

The airport in Istanbul was nasty, we were almost last off the plane since we had got almost the last seats up the back, and first had to queue for our Turkish visa. We were in one queue, then directed to another queue at the other end of the terminal, which was just as long when we got there. Got the visas, then joined the regular customs queue. This was also ridiculously long, and of course we chose the queue with the slowest official in the world up the front. Other planes had landed and cleared by the time we got through. On the other side the conveyor belt had long stopped and our bags were piled next to it. Still, at least they were there. SS changed some money, then we headed out the doors where luckily our pre-booked driver was waiting for us. He was a friendly man, but a TERRIBLE driver – the type who wants to give a running tourist commentary, but not look at the road, whilst driving with his foot flat to the floor. We only just arrived in one piece at the Home Suites hotel where we were easily checked in, and directed to our room. Room was fine and spacious, but was on the raised ground floor. SS did ask if there was an alternate room, but they were fully booked – disadvantages of being late bookers. Oh well. We unpacked (well, I did) and had a snooze until about 8pm when we got hungry. We took the AA guide books' recommendation and sought out Cafe Rumeli up in the touristy area of Istanbul. After a couple of wrong turns and overshooting we found it. It was great – friendly service and nice lighting (always important to SS, who if there is a single bright overhead light somewhere immediately goes into vampire mode and starts whining and looking frantically for somewhere more atmospheric).

We were given slices of sublime Turkish bread to nibble (so I was in heaven) then I had chicken noodle soup to start, then couscous with veg which was more like a pearl barley, but absolutely delicious. SS had grilled cheddar cheese and salad followed by koftes. We each had a giant draught Efes beer. SO full. We waddled back still talking about the potential Tanzanian trip, what else we would do in Turkey (at this point we just had 8 days booked in Istanbul but I had spoken to my sister the previous weekend and she had said if possible we must get to Cappadocia). The nicest thing about Istanbul at this point was the cats that were everywhere. I love cats, and they were obviously happy street cats – there were bowls of water left around for them, and people were in general very nice to them. As we walked back a tiny kitten took a fancy to SS and chased him along the pavement, playing with his jean hems.

The next day our alarm went off at 9:30am (which seemed early considering the time difference to the UK). SS did not want to wake up. I had tried sleeping in earplugs (my sister had warned me about the noisy calls to prayer) and have to say I was not a fan – I felt like I was on a boat with them in, rocking slowly. Since I generally sleep through anything I decided not to bother for the rest of the holiday.

What had been noisy was the reception area, with chairs and tables being moved around. So from then on we rolled a bed cover along the bottom of the door before going to sleep and that kept the noise from waking us up.

Up to breakfast, which was a fine, large buffet of typical Mediterranean style food – lots of salad, cheese, olives, meats and pastries. They LOVE their sweet stuff there. But I could put together cereal, bread for toast and some tea so I was happy. Unfortunately the only fruit really was watermelon (ugh – melon) so SS was happy but I stuck to whole apples.

We checked internet and got some quotes on side trips to Cappadocia, and then I shoe horned SS out the door at 12:15pm. There were still men with hand carts dragging assorted items like buckets! We walked up the hill to the Grand Bazaar as I had read there was a Carpet Auction. On the way we had to divert as there were roads shut off (no idea why – just loads of police). There were small kebab shops, although unusually in Istanbul (compared to London), the large kebab things looked quite healthy, with carrots, tomatoes and green things all layered in with the ears, snout and other offcuts that they seem to use. There were also loads of juice shops, with lots of pomegranate everywhere - SS was looking very happy.Unfortunately at the Grand Bazaar we were told the carpet auction had not run for 40 years. Weird. So we wandered around the Bazaar for a while, it is truly huge. Very little hassling which was nice. Once outside it was much worse. The young boys in particular were very persistent. We pushed on and headed for the Spice Bazaar. We found a nice leather bag was it was a bit too expensive so we agreed not to get it. We did buy some green tea of all things which was very reasonably priced. Then we found some pistachio nougat for SS’s father. Next we headed out to the Galata Bridge, passing on the way a large mosque where the men were all lined up outside on the small stone seats, washing their feet before entering, and then when leaving. I had read in the guide book that there was a ferry to Kadikoy Iskelesi – a shopping district on the Asian side of Istanbul built on the site of an old Greek settlement called Chalcedon, and so we went along the quay and found where we could buy some tickets – only TL1.50 each, bargain! We got right up to the front of the turnstiles and so when the ferry arrived we secured two good seats outside on the top deck at the back. Beautiful 25minute ride there on the water, with lovely views back across to the palaces along the shore. On arrival, Kadikoy did not look especially wonderful. We were very tempted to just stay on the ferry, but since we were there decided to have a look around. We headed along the quay, across the road, and up into the shopping district.

Great decision as it turned out – the place was really interesting and not too busy as it was mid week. We wandered some back streets, watching the locals go about their business, including this guy who was happily carrying loaves of bread around, and found a little cafe where with a combination of sign language and my guide book, ordered two teas. (only TL1.50 each!). We sat there happily drinking our teas and watching the world go by, and then headed back to the main pedestrian shopping street. At the top we found a pharmacy that was selling goji berries, where we got 500g of them all sealed up in a bag on the spot for TL12.50. Very happy with that. At the top of the hill we took a different road back to the quays, through what turned out to be the hairdressing district – loads of little shops along the same road, with the ubiquitous cats everywhere, and smells of ammonia. Quite surreal.

Back at the road along the quay we found a juice shop where SS got his favourite drink – freshly squeezed pomegranate (nar) juice, at TL3 for a 300ml cup. He was in heaven.

Back on to the ferry and back to Eminona dock again. We walked back to the hotel a different way, and dropped into a supermarket for price comparisons, past the Hagir Sofia, and down the hill to our hotel (stopping next door at the shop for a 6 litre bottle of water for TL2.50. We did pass this guy wearing his Aston Martin jacket - I was tempted to ask him if he had ever seen one, let alone driven one - funny what people wear! After a quick rest, I got back on the internet, and we sent off our details for a deposit on the Cappadocia trip. Relief to have that booked.

That night we walked back up to Aga Cadessi, along the steep hill next to the hotel.. We went along the old hippodrome, past the obelisks and other ancient statues. Tonight SS chose the Galissta Cafe for dinner. He started with grilled Halloumi and then sea bream. I had kalamari and then the vegetable casserole. Small portions but surprisingly heavy. I wasn’t such a fan, but SS preferred it to Rumeli.

We each had a beer with dinner, then SS decided to try a glass of red wine. It was truly hideous. It was called Sarap and it was awful.

We walked back to the hotel happily, SS a little tiddly, through a nice antiques arcade. Back in the room we watched some CNN (including a Harriet Harman and David Milliband fight), and then went to sleep.

Next day SS woke early and insisted I wake up too to keep him company. After breakfast I did some more emailing about the Tanzania trip, and confirmed the Cappadocia trip. Once we headed out, it was clear a cruise ship had docked recently, and central Istanbul around the main sites was standing room only. We ducked through the Blue Mosque (despite some strange guy on the main door telling us it was shut, we easily walked in around the corner through another door - strange. There was the usual washing feet place, and some lovely arched promenades inside. We refused to pay to go inside, so peered through some windows, and then moved on. There were still loads of people about so we headed to the Basilica Cistern. TL10 each to get in, but it was worth it. It was a lovely place, and when you get past the crowds at the entrance, it is an amazing place to be. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of SS being jostled about at the first viewing spot – once you walk another 10 metres you get the same shots, but with no people. Very amusing. The most interesting part of the cistern was how it had been constructed using pillars from other places, old tombs and churches and just trekked into Istanbul and set up willy nilly. Made for some great contrasting architecture.

Afterwards we headed off to the Grand Bazaar for some more shopping – I needed a new purse and wanted a present for my lovely god-daughter. We found a “Prada” wallet that was very well made, with a beautiful stamped suede lining. I tried bargaining, but could only get the man down to TL70 from TL90. So we walked off to see if we could find a similar wallet anywhere else. We found a lot of wallets, but none of the same quality. We got a bit lost, but I found our way back in the end, and I swallowed my pride and bought the wallet for TL70. Very happy I did.

SS was over the whole shopping thing, and our backs were hurting from so much walking and standing so we went across the road to another pedestrianised shopping area, found a bench, and settled down to people watch. Very funny as shortly afterwards a group from one of the cruise ships arrived at one of the restaurants. There were 2 elderly people on disability scooters, a rather fat daughter of one of the scooter men, and a friend who was quite gigantically obese. Unfortunately the cafe only had canvas folding style directors chairs with arms, and there was no way half the party would fit in them. So the cafe staff had to run to the restaurant next door to secure a chair with no arms so the lady could fit into it. It must be terrible going through life with special chairs having to be found for you.

We moved on and walked through the back streets to try to find the government run carpet shop (it was closed for refurbishment) so we went to the Arasta Bazaar again to see if we could get some pointy slippers for SS. They didn’t have any large enough, so we headed back to the hotel for about 3pm to have another rest – well, we were on holiday! SS checked news on the internet, and I was reading Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

At about 6pm we headed out again to a small museum in the Sultanahmet Gardens. We got in, and had to watch a strange short film which had been recorded in English, dubbed into Turkish, and then English subtitles put on to it. It had Ben Kingsley of all people starring in it, and was about all the inventions that the Turkish had brought to the world. Then we were allowed through to the main museum display which was full of large plastic displays (some interactive) which SS described as both cheesey and infantile. We read a couple of explanations of how Muslims had basically discovered every invention in the world, before we escaped out the back. We then headed to a bar that SS had spotted which did Efes draught for TL5 each, and had a couple of those. We enjoyed a lovely hour in the warm evening, sitting and chatting. Then back to Rumeli Cafe (I insisted) and this time it was quite busy so we were upstairs in a small room in the converted house. We were joined by a couple of middle aged English women at the other table. Had a lovely dinner of spinach soup followed by the cous cous again for me. SS had spinach soup and then halloumi. Halfway through dinner a huge group of your tourists arrived and headed up to the roof terrace – I started counting and there were 43 of them!! Very funny watching them snake their way up the stairs, and then watching the waitresses follow them with trays with scores of drinks balanced on them. We didn’t stay long enough to see the food head up as well.

We shared a small bottle of Yakut cab sav 2009 which was perfectly nice. Back to the hotel as I was tired, and had some mint tea watching Euronews in the room.

Next day I woke up at 9am, but only managed to get SS to move at 9:40am. We had our breakfast routine down well by now, checked emails, then we relaxed for a while and headed out at 12:50pm to go and visit the old Castle in the western districts. My guide book was a little vague, but we headed down to the station at Cankartaran – nice area with some smaller hotels and hostels, quite lively looking.

We had seen a story on CNN coincidentally about houses being demolished in Istanbul so were keen to see some examples of the old style. Paid our train token (TL1.50) and on to the train platform. The train was modern and quick, 5 stops to Yedikule where we got off. Not the most exciting station - the area looked like it had only just survived the cold war and was ripe for redevelopment. I had no map for the area, but we hoped a big castle wouldn’t be hard to find. It was a very poor area, and we found the castle very quickly. Paid TL5 each, and headed in. We went to read the only information board, and were shocked when a large Alsatian on a chain lunged at us, barking loudly. Hmmm. We stepped back and headed off to explore. Amazing place. We had it to ourselves, which compared to the rest of Istanbul was amazing. The castle is off the beaten path but it really is worth seeing. There are uneven, broken stone stairs, no handrails, no warning signs, no barriers to walking off edges etc etc. No way that it would be EU approved for OH&S!! Even more reason for me to love it. If you wanted to step off the battlements – go for it! Tumble down the steep uneven spiral stairs – knock yourself out! We climbed a tower to admire the views, walked the battlements, and wandered in the courtyard (keeping a good distance from the large angry dog of course).

Next, we headed a long way back to the station to see the houses and architecture. Very poor neighbourhood as mentioned, but some nice architecture. The juxtaposition of the old houses and the newer ones in particular was quite striking, altho’ there were people still living in the older houses that looked like they were falling down by themselves…

On the train back we stayed on to the terminus at Istanbul Gar. We hadn’t seen any museums or typical sights to date, so we headed up the hill through the side streets to the Archeological Museum. 10TL entry each, and we didn’t really know what to expect. This was housed in some beautiful old buildings, and was surprisingly large.

First we did the Roman statues area then upstairs into the Byzantine heritage of the castles that used to be in Istanbul together with relics. Out into another bulding and had a quick look at the pottery house (not really our thing), then into the Ancient Orient which was surprisingly interesting. Lots of Egyptian stuff, then older bits and pieces from about 1000BC including the Treaty of Kadesh which is inscribed on a stone tablet from 13C BC and some glazed tiles with lions on them that were on the processional route to Babylon. I started to get a little tired and my back was hurting, but SS was surprisingly taken by all the exhibits.

SS fancied a coffee so we stopped off at the large outdoor café at the end of the Arasta bazaar. Well, not what you would call great customer service. We picked a seat, and were eventually handed menus. SS ordered a coffee, and I ordered a tea. And then we waited. And waited. And then noticed that our waiter had joined a group of other waiters at one of the other tables, and was playing dice! Hmmm. Eventually another waiter came over and asked if we wanted to order. We pointed at our previous waiter and mentioned we had already ordered, but the new waiter agreed that he would just get our coffee and tea for us. In the end we didn’t wait to try to order the bill, we just left the money on the table and left. Weird.

Back to the hotel, where they kindly printed out our travel confirmations for the Cappadocia trip. Then back to the room where I read my book and SS played on the internet a bit more. Out at 8pm for more pre-dinner drinks at our favourite bar (mainly because they did pints for 5TL each), and SS got up to check some menus at nearby restaurants. Unfortunately this was when he got grabbed by a nasty spruiker type, dressed like a convict, who used to work in Coventry as a rubbish man. Great credentials. Anyway, he convinced SS so over we headed, into the empty restaurant.

We hadn’t noticed the proliferation of neon lighting until we got inside, and then before we were even offered menus the waiter tried to sell us the clay pot special for two people for 50TL. Yeah right!! SS ordered spicy sausage followed by amando kebap. I ordered kalamari followed by chicken casserole on the basis that they couldn’t really mess that up? The waiter then returned with a tray with entire collection of cold mezze on it, in varying states of congealing and drying out. Ugh. We politely declined. Next the bread was delivered. Up until now the bread had been a delight in restaurants – thick spongey Turkish bread, fresh and my favourite. Well, here it was stale flat bread which they had tried to toast to disguise its staleness. Truly awful and inedible (and normally I can eat any bread).

So I was not hopeful of the meal, beyond the hard sell we had received so far in any case. SS ordered a glass of house red which, surprise surprise, turned out to be the worst wine of our trip, and tasted like sherry. I stuck to water.

My starter was OK, SS’s spicy sausage looked like pigs feet to me, and he said it tasted like Heinz tinned sausage. I refused to try it. Then out came the mains. SS said his was OK, but mine was truly hideous. Bouncy uncooked chicked in oil with some veg, served in a hot bowl. The bottom was scalding hot oil, the top was cold and greasy. I didn’t eat it, and SS did not help me to finish. Bill came to 77TL including a 7TL tip. SS handed over 80TL in cash and got 1.50TL back. We just grabbed it and ran rather than make a fuss – couldn’t wait to get out of there. Worst meal of the trip.

The next morning we went through our usual routine of breakfast, showers, internet, and eventually headed out at 1:15pm (we were on holiday!!). We decided to head to the old section of the city across the Galata Bridge, so headed up past the Grand Bazaar, down hugely busy streets where the locals were out shopping (altho’ what for I couldn’t work out – every shop along the route sold either children’s clothes, shoes or lingerie – nothing else!). Fought our way through the underground pass, and then walked over the Galata Bridge to Beyoglu. It was a longer walk than we thought, and we both agreed the 1.50TL tram ticket would be a good investment on the way back. So we headed up a REALLY steep hill to the European area. The road was so steep the pavement had steps in it all the way up – photos never do slopes justice do they? At the top we headed off down a side street to see the Pera Palace Hotel which was recently renovated, and was where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express in room 411 (for those trivia buffs out there). From a little further up the road there was a nice view of the urban sprawl off towards the opposing hill. I had no idea Istanbul was so hilly – everywhere you go on both sides of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus it is REALLY hilly…

Back on the pedestrianised shopping street, it was like being in any European town – same shops for the most part, young people all dressed up promenading around and getting in your way. Big contrast to the shopping street on the Asian side where we had come from, which was full of those strange shops, and all the people bustling along the streets were dressed in the hijab. The crowds were equally frustrating however. We ducked into an electronics store as I needed an adaptor plug, but no luck. Next into a CD store to compare prices, and I was very taken with the local music section – it seems to make it in Turkish music you need to resemble Leo Sayer with a Tom Selleck moustache. Out again and after a couple of wrong turns we found ourselves in the antique area, full of little shops full of bric a brac. We took a look around a few, but weren’t tempted by anything. I did find a dear old fashioned electronics shop which just seemed to have rows and rows of fuses and transistors, but DID have an adaptor plug for 5TL – bargain! We stopped for another Turkish coffee in a lovely little shop (beautifully served on a silver tray!) then after some more browsing we headed down the hill again to the coastline and our tram stop. Of course along the way we did spot a pomegranate stall, so once again had to stop off for SS to get his fix! Best price yet – 2TL for a medium sized cup, and squeezed in front of you.

On to the tram, and off at Sultanahmet stop, where somehow since the morning a strange forest of tented stalls had gone up during the day, full of Braille machines and political party representatives (yes, very strange), but we pushed through back to the hotel. There were even some police on strange 3 wheeled Segways. I finished my book, and we watched a program on Buenos Aires (good research for our upcoming Argentina trip), and then we headed out to dinner at 8pm at Doy Doy. We did try to find a beer somewhere near the hotel first, but no luck at all – only restaurants, no bars. So we just went straight for dinner. It was quite breezy on the roof terrace, but a lovely view of the Blue Mosque all lit up. We shared a mezze to start, and I had a minced meat Turkish pizza, SS had a mixed grill and we shared a shepherd’s salad (which turned out to be tomato, parsley and CUCUMBER – ugh ugh – I ate around it). We were back at the hotel by 8:45pm, and packed for our trip to Cappadocia the next day.

See separate entry for Cappadocia, we got back to Istanbul 3 nights later quite late in the evening. The following day we were up for our usual routine again, the side trip seemed quite surreal really. We did out online checkin at 1:20pm, and then went to the travel agent up the road to organise an airport transfer for the following day. Once the fat travel agent worked out we weren’t going to buy a nasty trip with them, just the airport transfer, they were pretty rude about it. We were tempted to go somewhere else, but they were the closest to our hotel. Then we walked up to Sultanahmet, and caught the tram to Eminonu. SS thought two dodgy men were following us, so we were careful for a while, but then the men ended up going another way. I think he was right and they were following us, but when we were sensible with our bags etc, they went to pick on someone else. We had a look around the quays for a suitable boat ride, and stumbled on the 2 hour round circle cruise leaving at 2:30pm, for 15TL each – perfect. WE paid up and got straight on at 2:15pm, claimed a seat in the sun and off we went! The trip went under the 2 bridges, turned and them came back. We saw houses, castles, forts and it was a nice relaxing thing to do. Some of our fellow passengers were… interesting, particular this couple – the multi coloured umbrella is actually his hat!

A lot of the houses and architecture reminded me of Sydney Harbour actually, and on checking afterwards, the prices are no different! We walked back to the hotel, and headed out for our last night in Istanbul. (after watching I Love Money – a Turkish game show in French that I got addicted to whilst there). So we went to our usual place for our usual 5TL beers, me with one of the Istanbul cats asleep on the chair next to me – I did love all the cats there. We watched the spruiker in the convict shirt trying to tout business for the awful restaurant, but I convinced SS to go back to Café Rumeli again – I did love it there. To get there from our bar, we had to run the gauntlet of all the tourist restaurants near the Cistern. Hilarious – they all have their little catchphrases: “Your wife looks hungry!”; “Slow Down, I won’t bite!”; “On honeymoon?”;”Nice couple!”; “Tu vois mange?”; we were laughing so hard by now one guy came up with “What are you laughing at? Is he a jokerman or a superman?”…

We ordered a bottle of Ancyra Syrah 2009, and I had chicken noodle soup followed by beef ravioli in minted yoghurt – both lovely. SS had aubergine carrot and zucchini fritters followed by eggplant and kofte shishas. Lovely evening with lots of chat and we did get quite tiddly. We walked back along the hippodrome and SS decided we should recreate a chariot race so we were skipping and marching along in unison, being loud and happy and probably entertaining a lot of locals (not to mention the cats).

Back to the hotel to watch BBC News, where there was a news story about Prince William doing his first SAR mission in his helicopter. To which SS decided to comment: “Is he still with that bird? Her sister is much more attractive!”. Always bringing things to the lowest common denominator!

Up earlier than usual the next day, I packed, had breakfast and then relaxed util we had to leave. We dragged our bags up to the nasty travel agents, where the bus arrived at 10:30am. We did a circuit of all the hotels and hostels in Istanbul by the end of it – the minivan was PACKED with people and their luggage. However the driver was the usual Turkish maniac so we still got to the airport when expected. First we had to join the bag scan queue before even entering the airport – that took 37 minutes. Then we headed for the Turkish airlines checkin to drop our bags. We couldn’t work out how to get to the desks, so ended up going the back way. Finally one of the checkin ladies noticed us and called us over. Well, she turned out to be the rudest person I have ever encountered in an airport, and that is saying something!! It took us 3 minutes of back and forthing, before we realised that her rude comments were because we had not gone through the security check (because no-one had been there at the time) and got some particular sticker. So back we went to her colleague at the start of the queue, who checked our passports only, gave us stickers, and waved us on. Ridiculous. Then we went to another check in guy who was much nicer. On the way past the original check in girl, I stopped and asked her for her name. She told me, with a sneer, and I said “Thankyou very much, I’ll remember that.” She looked a bit pale at that point.

Spent our last TL on some Turkish and some Georgian (!) wine, then boarded. After our lovely flight on the way over on the new 777 I was excited, but unfortunately we were shoe horned on to an old A320 with no in flight entertainment (apart from the turquoise leather seats and salmon coloured curtains between economy and business class – very psychedelic.

Got held up in the Heathrow congestion queue as usual, but finally landed 20 minutes late, and my bag was almost first off the plane. SS’s bag however did not emerge – we were starting to think nasty check in woman had got her revenge by crawling along the conveyor belt and hiding his bag behind a potplant in Istanbul airport, but no, it was just the last bag off the plane – literally 27 minutes after my bag came through. Sigh. At least it got there, and we headed home for a few days before the next adventure - this time off to Bordeaux.