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Merhaba, Istanbul. Türkiye'de dört gün daha.
(Hello Istanbul. Four more days in Türkiye.)
Tuesday, 30th July 2024 - Saturday, 3rd August 2024
Summary:
What
Güle güle, Lefkoşa. (Tuesday, 30th July.)
Day 144, Flight 16, Accomodation 62 ~ From Cyprus to Istanbul (population 16,047,000).
The flight spectacularly passed over the Troodos mountain range and then over the northern coast and the Cilician Sea towards Turkey.
We arrived at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen International Airport to the south of the Bosphorus and the flight there took less time than the trains and walk from the airprort to our hotel... the city is so huge.
Not that the metro was slow, just that there were 25 stops.
Then it was a twenty minute walk up past the Hagi Sofia and back down to our next stop over.
After a shower and change of clothes we started to explore our corner of the city.
We had a nice meal (I had pide, Leb a salad) and then we walked down to a very choppy channel where the Golden Horn meets the Bosphorus.
We strolled through the wonderful spice bazaar and were only persuaded only once to buy some Turkish delight. (Asked thirty times!)
Then, with feet aching like mad, it was time to head back to the hotel for an early night.
It turned out the breakfast room was a very thin wall (more like a thin sheet of astroturf!) away from our bedroom.
From Europe to Asia by Ferry in Istanbul. (Wednesday, 31st July.)
Day 145 ~ From Europe to Asia by Ferry in Istanbul.
After a nice brekkie at the hotel we wandered down to our closest metro station, Cankurtaran, just two minutes away. (Why didn't Google maps tell us about that yesterday!?)
There we caught a clean new train straight to the impressive old Sirkeçi station where there was an amazing display of correspondence from prisoners of war from WW1.
Keen to take advantage of our Istanbul City Travel cards, we got on a ferry thinking it was going to head north east up the Bosphorus but soon realising that instead it was heading South East to Kadiköy over on the Asian side of Istanbul.
Oh well, never mind. We were planning to go there anyway so we got off and explored the amazing markets and had a delicious balik ekmek (fish & salad cob). We had a Turkish coffee.
Then we split apart with Leb doing some more browsing around the markets whilst I toddled off to see the Fenerbahçe football stadium. (Sukru Saracoglu Stadium) There were no stadium tours going but I popped into the club shop to cool down before heading back to meet Leb.
Leb's browsing...
My visit to Fenerbahce...
Back together...
We caught the ferry back to Eminönü having another Balik Ekmek before getting the train back to our hotel.
The Blue Mosque and The Bosphorus. (Thursday, 1st August.)
Day 146 ~ The Blue Mosque and The Bosphorus.
The day started with another nice simple breakfast. Leb enjoyed these more than me, it has to be said.
The plan to go to the nearvy Hagia Sofia mosque was abandoned after queueing for ten minutes when we realised $100 (aud) was probably a bit too much. Instead we walked into the magnificent courtyard of the nearby Blue Mosque and then pottered around before a lovely dinner at Tur Döner.
After a snooze we walked down to the ferry terminal at Eminönü hoping to catch a Bosphorus tour but Murphy's law intervened again and instead we just caught one to Üsküdar... technically up the Bosphorus. There we walked along the shore, caught the sunset (on the European, western side) and then caught the ferry back.
The ferry unfeasibly squeezed under what seemed a very low bridge to finally arrive at the dock. Upon disembarking we crossed back over the magnificent bridge from the top side this time.
I had another quick balik ekmek and Leb had corn on the cobb before we walked back to the hotel through Istanbul's nightly throng.
Last day in Türkiye. (Friday, 2nd August.)
Day 147 ~ Last day in Türkiye.
Woke up to a bizarre clutch of good news...Vladimir Kara Murza had been released, Venezuelan opposition victory was backed by USA (ironic to read that two years later), a new Ukrainian warship had been launched whilst were here in Tûrkiye and Forest signed a new winger Jota Silva.
To add to the good vibe I then received one of those totally unexpected text messages out of the blue. This one from our Lithuanian language teacher back in Perth, Kristina Tamosauskaite Aktaş, who is currently in Istanbul. She spotted my FB diary and invited us to meet up.
So, no lazy lie in today. After a quick brekkie we walked through Gülhane Park down to the sea and crossed Galata bridge to Karaköy and then climbed the steep cobbled streets to the top where stands the magnificent old Galata tower. Leb, fearing walking up a hundred steps would not be good for her hip, decided not to go up but sent me on a mission to take lots of photos and videos. I returned with those, plus the news that the tower has a lift and that she really should go up too. So she did. Whilst she was up the tower I pottered around and had a bizarre experience when a shoe cleaner decided my plimsolls (bought for $3.50 AUD from K-Mart) needed a clean. It cost 70 Turkish lire. He must have seen me coming!
After that we walked down to the Karaköy ferry terminal and had time for Birak Ekmek and salad before catching the 13:05 back to Üsküdar again (where we were last night) to meet Kristina.
We hopped on a bus to take us under the massive suspension bridge connecting Europe and Asia to the magnificent Beylerbeyi Palace, the imperial Ottoman summer house completed in 1865, the year Forest were founded. Then, back to our room for the last time, feet aching and ready for a kip!
Güle güle, Istanbul. (Saturday, 3rd August.)
Day 148 ~ Flight 17 Accommodation 63. My 67th Country (3 above par on the Jodie curve)... Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Elveda Türkiye, Zdravo Bosna!
After a few snags on the way to the airport (Google maps doesn't make it obvious that metro stations are actually not accessible from directly above, I goofed Pegasus' check in and paid for checked in baggage when we didn't want to) we were off with a glorious view of the west coast and then the Bosphorus before a short flight to Sarajevo, capital of BiH.
Nice apartment here. Leb was suffering again so I popped out to do some shopping. A couple of glasses of Macedonian wine and some nice local pastries and cheese ended the day nicely.
