A Day In Asia

Thursday we spent mostly on the Asian side of Istanbul. We took a subway and then a tram to Eminonu, just over the bridge in Sultanahmet. We then walked through the spice market, admired all the birds and parrots they sell there, and then bought some spices, saffron and salep. Then we walked down to the port and caught a ferry over to Kadikoy which lies on the Sea of Marmara. Our plan was to find another open market there, supposedly things are cheaper on the Asian side, have a coffee by the water, and maybe check out the beach.

We walked around for about 45 minutes, and tried to ask people for direction to bazaar. I am surprised how very few young people speak English. Many adults, I assume because they deal with tourists in their shops or restaurants, know more languages than young people. But still, it took us to find a tour guide and couple of ladies from the US who live here for the last 10 years, to figure out that this place doesn't have open air markets, just shops. So, we changed our loose plans and took dolmush, a mini van, toward Ushkudar and then another one toward Beylerbey.

It is just by the Bosphorus bridge, and there is a great 19th century palace there, but it is closed on Thursdays. We found a cute little restaurant just on the water, and had coffee there. The young men working there are still inexperienced waiters, and when I asked for some more sugar by pointing and the sugar cube on my mom's plate, he brought me one single sugar cube on another plate. We also ordered fried Horse Mackerels, and fed with fish heads some 5 stray cats, which there are many of in Istanbul. We had a really nice and long break there right on the water, next to one of the world's largest suspension bridge, the Bodjazichi Bridge, linking Europe and Asia.

It was already 5 PM when we continued on, thinking the boat docks are just around the corner. The few people we talked to, either didn't know any English, understood us just enough to tell us that Sultanahmet is in the opposite direction than we were walking (of course, we just wanted to catch a boat back), or kept telling us to keep walking because boat is further ahead. We realized that if people don't understand us in English to try to say the same words in Bosnian, and chances are they would understand some of it.

After an hour of walking, we were pretty tired and there was still no boat ramp. We actually couldn't even walk by the water, or even see the river for the most part, because there are huge mansions along the way, we 7 ft tall walls and solid metal gates. Finally, we found someone on a valley parking who told us there is a port just 500 m further, and they gave us a ride in what was the first air conditioned car we've been in here (it was out second car, but even the buses don't have AC's either) By the way, we stopped in few banks along the way while walking to cool down under the AC. At the port we find out that we can only take the small boat across Bosphorus and then would have to take a bus to Taksim, which would probably be an hour judging by our last night's experience on the road along the river. Otherwise, we'd have to catch a bus on that Asian side back to Ushkudar, the same distance we walked for an hour only took 15 min. The ferry took us back to Eminonu.

I was hoping we could catch the last half hour of the market on Kapali Charshi, so we walked up the hill from the ferry. But, we walked slow this time, and got there too late. We just went straight to the bus and to our hotel. Today's transportation: metro, tram, boat, dolmush, another dolmush, (an hour of walking), bus, boat, bus - total of 8.

Since we had some food during the day, unlike the previous two days, we wanted a simple and quick dinner. Plus, my left lower calf muscle was hurting since yesterday, and the unplanned walking today didn't help, so I was hoping to eat somewhere in Taksim. On our way we saw KFC and a pizza hut. We checked out few side streets off of the main pedestrian street, and after practically being stopped on the street to enter their restaurant, we set down at one open table outside, had Efes beer and doner, like Greek gyros. Again, we got to our room after midnight.