An Afternoon in Sultanahmet

Sometimes I forget where I'm living. It's easy to go to work every day, come home, chat online, check e-mail, watch movies, do puzzles, plan another days' work and keep repeating it throwing in an occasional something else here and there. I sometimes forget that I fell in love with Istanbul not just because of the fact that I already speak the language! I love my flat. I love the area that I live in. But sometimes I forget that I also love the Grand Bazaar and Sultanahmet and all those things that tourists come all this way to see. It's sad that they don't get to see the day to day Istanbul that I love, but what they do see is great.

Yesterday Stephanie and I were both off, and since she had never been to the Grand Bazaar, we decided to go. We set off in the ferry from Kadiköy near our home on the Asian side of Istanbul and crossed to Eminönü, on the European side of Istanbul. We then crossed the Bosphorus...
Europe is on the left, Asia is on the right....

After the crossing (which takes about 20 minutes) we got on the tram and headed for the Grand Bazaar. It is a pretty bizarre place, all sorts of stuff for sale, side by side, so the vendors have to find different ways of getting your attention. All in all a fun time though. Here's a couple of pics of that.

We then headed down through the back roads to the spice bazaar, which I like even better than the grand bazaar, but for some reason, I didn't take any pictures.

After the Spice Bazaar, in the big area next to the mosque that it's underneath, we took this picture

and then we headed across the Galata Bridge to find a cafe. The Galata Bridge spans the Golden Horn and is a floating bridge. On the upper level cars and buses and trams pass from Eminonu to Karakoy. On the lower level, on both sides, restauranteurs and cafe-owners compete for trade. On the top of the bridge Turkish men find their escape in fishing. As a Bermudian amateur fisherwoman, I really don't understand how these men spend hours and hours with rod and reel to catch sardines about 10 cm long. But they do it and it's part of the culture. There's a public holiday on Monday so the city is festooned with flags.

There's also a fountain in the middle of the water! I like that.
We went to the cafe and ordered a strawberry nargile. Nargile, for those that don't know, is an Arab water pipe. To dispel any ideas that there are strange goings on in the nargile, it's flavoured tobacco treated in molasses, and then filtered through water. It's a very Turkish (and I guess Middle Eastern) thing. The flavours range from fruity, the most popular being apple, but also strawberry, melon, banana, blackberry, lemon, and others, to more aromatic like mint, rose, and jasmine to the more trendy caramel, cappuccino, and vanilla, and everything in between. Sitting in a cafe with nargile, tea and backgammon... couldn't be any more Turkish.

After talking and laughing for a couple of hours, we watched the sun set. It was gorgeous and I took a million pictures, but you know pictures.... you can't capture the sunset. Here's my small attempt anyway


At almost 8 we decided to head back to Kadikoy. We had done the day, and were happy with it. I couldn't resist a last sunset picture though.


Here's a couple of pictures of the restaurants and cafes under the Galata Bridge that I took on Saturday night....


Back in Kadikoy, to end, here's the Haldun Taner Theatre. A famous landmark....