Istanbul Part 2: PR Post 3 of 5

On Wednesday we woke up, showered, and headed to the Hagia Sophia area for breakfast. I got grilled corn on the cob from a stand and Jacob and Anne got Turkish Pretzels or Sesame Bread Circles. We didn't know what they were called so we named them that. They were all over the place though. 

We started our morning at Topkapi Palace, where the Ottoman Sultans lived. It was also very intricate and extravagant. Even though it wasn't a peak tourist month, there were tons of people there and we had to wait in long lines to see the rooms. They were very interesting though and every room looked so different. It was huge and maze like and we didn't get to see the whole thing, but we saw enough of it I think. It was cool because even though there were a lot of tourists in some of the places we went, none of the sights seemed overly touristy or gimmicky. It all seemed pretty genuine and unique, from my perspective at least. 

Entrance to the palace

More intricate details

Pretty tile

The sparkly stuff is Mother of Pearl

We wanted to do a walking tour of the Western District. None of us speak any Turkish and a lot of people only spoke minimal English. It made everything very difficult. Especially since it took us a couple days to even figure out how to pronounce half the characters. So we were unsure of how to get there. 

Even though we heard that taxis were unsafe or scammed tourists often, we decided to try it since we had no idea how to get to the Western District. We found a taxi and pointed out the name of where we wanted to go to the driver and asked if he head a meter. "Meter? Yes," He said and we climbed in the car. Jacob sat up front and Anne and I sat in the back. "Did you start it?" Jacob asked after we started driving and the driver pushed a button. We kept watching the meter, but the number didn't change. We started talking quietly to each other in German about that fact. The driver approached a line of cars then suddenly turned up a side street. "We're heading back the way we came, " Anne said. "Too much traffic. Taxi will be too expensive. You take bus," the driver told us as he sped back to where he picked us up. Realizing something was wrong, we prepared to jump out of the car. "10 Lira," he told us. We were so confused about everything that happened in the last few minutes we just looked at each other. "GET OUT!" he yelled when we got back to the spot. We got out as fast as we could. "10 Lira!" He kept shouting but we were so confused we didn't do anything for a minute. "Okay 5 Lira," he said and Jacob quickly dug out 5 Lira and gave it to him and then we quickly walked away. 

Deciding to never try taking a taxi again, we went down to the water to catch a ferry. We kept being sent to different places. Eventually we paid someone 3 Lira to board a bus. In retrospect, it was probably an under the table agreement because we everyone else had electronic cards and there were no machines to accept money on the bus. But it wasn't too expensive and it got us there. A friendly Turkish lady helped us out on the bus and we ended up getting off the bus exactly where we needed to be. 

We were very glad we went to the Western District. It was very cool, very old, a little poorer, and a lot less touristy. We followed the walking tour in the book. The first stop was a little mosque. Outside was an older man. "Deutsch sprechen?" He asked us. "Ein bisschen," we told him. He then gave us a tour of the inside of the mosque in German. We took our shoes off and walked around and it was very pretty. We tried to give him a donation for the mosque, but he refused and wished us a nice day.

The Western District

The little mosque

Everyone we met in Turkey was very nice and very friendly, minus the taxi driver. Although, we consoled ourselves, it could have easily been a lot worse. The next stop on the walking tour was the ruins of an old palace. They were damage when Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror breached the city walls in 1453. The Byzantine walls were built in 5th century. 

We saw part of the walls and we went up to them to take a picture. There were a bunch of Turkish children playing at a park nearby and they came running over. "Photo! Photo! Photo!" They all shouted, gesturing for us to give them our cameras. "No, thanks," we shook our heads. One little kid ran up next to Anne, who we had been trying to take a picture of in front of the wall. He put his arm around her and smiled. "Foto!" he shouted. So we took their picture. Later on our walk, other kids ran up to us and chased us for about a block yelling "Photo!" as well.

We then got to climb up on top of the old Byzantine city walls. They were very high and had an incredible view of Istanbul. The Call to Prayer was happening while we were looking out over the city and all the Turkish flags were waving and it was very cool. 

The next stop was the Chora Church which was unfortunately closed, so we took a snack break at a nearby cafe instead. We got pommes and water and Jacob and Anne got Turkish pizza. It was nice to take a break. 

We flipped a Lira to see if we should go back the way we came or try a new way. That helped us decide we wanted to go a new way. We found a bus station. Little mini buses honked as they flew by, little paper signs in their window listed where they were stopping. People would jump out to wave down the ones they needed. Not really knowing where we were going we looked desperately at the sign for awhile until someone told us we needed to go to the other side. We darted across. Finally Anne shouted out that she recognized a stop on one of the buses coming (this one was an actual sized bus). 

So we dug around for coins and boarded the bus. I showed the money to the driver and he waved his hand. I tried to give the money to him again and he just waved us in. We sat down and tried to figure out where we were on Anne's map. "As long as we don't cross a bridge, we'll be okay," Jacob said. Almost immediately the bus turned and went over a bridge. "Maybe it'll go back over?" I said. Luckily it did, and we got off at a stop where we could catch the tram back to the hostel.

We had wanted to go across the Bosphorus Strait to have dinner in Asian Istanbul, but it was late, we were very tired, and the ferry system was so complicated. So we decided to go to Taksim, a newer part of Istanbul, for dinner. We took the tram to the "funicular" which was really just a one stop tunnel train. We decided to be economical and bought round trip funicular ecards, which was cheaper than buying two single cards. 

I can't even begin to describe Istanbul's chaotic immensity. It is so big. And every part is so different. Taksim was very modern and very different form the parts of Istanbul we'd seen so far. It was less touristy than Sultanahment, where we were staying, and practically polar opposite from the Western District, which we had walked around that morning. It was very downtown city like. It was very trendy, was packed with young Turkish people even though it was a Wednesday night. There were expensive clothing shops, clubs blasting electro beats, and bars everywhere you looked. Despite the expensive and modern metropolitan feel to Taksim, it still retained pieces of Istanbul. We passed many kebap shops, upscale baklava shops, the streets were cobblestone, and there were a few monuments and buildings from Ottoman times. 

We turned down a side street and passed a restaurant. We peeked at a menu, but kept walking. The host chased us down. "You are students? Special deal!" He ended up offering us 5 Lira off all our dishes. I got a chicken kebap (again) that was raw and I had to send back. Jacob and Anne got whole fish cooked and plopped on their plate. It was nice eating dinner outside on the cobblestone side street. After dinner we walked around Taksim for a little longer, stopping at a baklava shop for dessert. We got several different types that we all shared as we walked around taking in our surroundings. 

We discovered we missed the last funicular so we walked down a steep hill to the tram stop. By some awesome occurrence, the round trip ticket we bought worked for the tram as well. We then went back to the hostel and fell asleep to the soothing sounds of two am truck unloading and lively Turkish conversations. 

View from the Taksim side of the river

On our last day in Istanbul, we woke up, packed, checked our Facebooks, and left our luggage in the luggage room. We decided we really wanted to go to Asia, so we hopped on a tram and then on a ferry, which was only 3 Lira. 

We had bought more spinach borek at a small shop, which we ate for breakfast on the ferry looking at Asian Istanbul from the water. We sat on the top so we could see the view, which was incredible. 

Breakfast on the boat

When we got there we walked along the coast of Asia and did a partial walking tour. We stopped by three mosques, which were all very different and interesting. The first one was tiny, the second one had a bunch of kids at recess. When they saw us through the open windows of the school, it caused a great commotion. "Hello! Hello!" all the kids shouted excitedly from the windows. I waved up at them. "Do you speak English? I do not!" shouted one kid, laughing. They kept calling hello as we walked by. 

Tired, we decided to just get lunch along the coast. We found a cafe that had a balcony terrace type thing and we ate our lunch overlooking European Istanbul. It was very peaceful taking it all in, eating our Turkish food and Semolina dessert. The waiters didn't speak any English, and it didn't seem like they got tourists very often because some waiters just came over to look at us. They propped up a little stand on our table with little Turkish and American flags. We got by with an English copy of the menu and a lot of pointing. I ordered in the three Turkish words I learned "Tavuk shish and su" a chicken shish kebap and water. Jacob even managed to say think you in Turkish. 

European Istanbul

Uskudar, where we walked

Uskudar

Lunch in Asian Istanbul

Slightly sunburned from the bright Turkish sun, we traveled slowly and relaxed to the airport. A ferry, a tram, a stop by the hostel, another tram, and a train, we made it to the airport. The food at the airport was ridiculously expensive, but we used the last of Anne's Lira to buy us all water and cookies from a Nero Cafe. 

Jacob and Anne were continuing on to Amsterdam for Anne's graduation and the rest of their break, and I was heading to London. I hugged them goodbye when their flight boarded and then went and boarded my plane to London an hour later. 

Turkey was incredible and I'm so glad I went. I felt very safe with Jacob and Anne, but I probably would not go by myself, or even in just a group of girls. Everyone we met was very friendly and outgoing. It was interesting though the difference in how men and women were treated. 90% of the people we saw working at restaurants, stands, in shops were men. It was a noticeable difference. Men were also a lot more forward and would stare at us more than would be socially permissible in Western European countries. It was interesting though, because on trams, men always stood up for women. We heard it was rude not to accept the seat as well. So men stood up for Anne and I when we got on trams. There were also a lot of stray cats. It was a very cool trip though and I'm glad we got to do all that we did.