istanbul | Around the World in 80 Trips (Or Less)

Posts tagged ‘istanbul’

Venice to Turkey 22

Day 22, Istanbul, May 25

We sleep in to 8AM today. We eat in the coffee shop on the first floor and they hand us a free breakfast. We stroll the hundred yards to the Tower on top of the hill and buy tickets to enter. €30 each. Priced in Euros, but only Lira and CCs accepted, interesting. The line is about 50 yards long.

The views from the top are great! We can see the whole city almost. After walking around the complete tower, we go down and head for the river, a fairly steep downhill. We walk across the bridge and almost immediately find the Spice Market. Very interesting indoor market that takes up several acres. Out the back side of the Spice Market, we step into the Grand Bazaar, a market to rival Cairo’s Souk. We walk a half mile through the Souk before turning around and heading back. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, I lost a group of photos of the markets.

We make it back to the river and take a ferry across for 7 Lira (about 20 cents) each. Then it is almost 2 PM (remember we slept in) and the waterfront is lined with restaurants. We find one and have a light lunch of eggplant and salad.

Now we make the trek back up the hill to the Tower and back to our hotel. We take a much loved nap and head back out to find dinner.

We walk around and the crowds are fierce. We realize that tomorrow is a holiday for fasting and people are eating to prepare for it. Thoughts come to mind of people back home finding out that they can’t buy gasoline the next day so they fill up today. Okay, I know it’s a bad analogy but you get the idea.

We find a street with really good Turkish food and we sit down. First I ask the waiter if they serve wine and we are informed the entire street is dry. Well, as the wine drinkers that we are, we get up and walk away.

We settle on a restaurant named, Guney, next to the restaurant where we ate last night. The food is very good and they serve good Turkish wine.

Back in our hotel, we have a less than adequate room (after the horrible room we started with yesterday) where the AC died and we can’t even get the fan to run. This replacement room also has no windows. So it will be another uncomfortable night.

But, being the travel troopers that we are, we will make do.

Venice to Turkey 21

Day 21, Gallipoli, May 24

Breakfast and on the bus at 7:30 AM. Ground is wet so it must have rained last night. My favorite kind of rain, at night that you never see!

Beshiktash soccer team in Istanbul is our driver’s favorite Team and he has a model bus on the dashboard. We are in the city of Canakkale (pronounced kaan-a-kaal-E).

Our bus drives onto a ferry that will take us to the Gallipoli Peninsula, an Intercontinental ride. We have been in Asia and we are going back to Europe. We first learned about Gallipoli on our RTW 2020 in Wellington, New Zealand. It was a WWI battle to control the entrance to the Black Sea. We will now learn the Turkish version. Some interesting shots from the ferry ride.

The cemetery of Anzac is very moving with the engraving on the stones. We also visit ‘Toren Alani’, a more rustic cemetery where the headstones are just rounded and not carved.

Chunkbair area with monuments is also moving. Found two more Phillips on memorials. Found several on the one before.

Ataturk’un Gozetleme Yeri is a famous overlook that gave sightings to attacking forces.

Canakkale Bridge is about 3 miles long. Longest suspension bridge in the world. Connects Europe to Asia. Named 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in memory of the victory of Gallipoli for $30 B.

We drive on through Gelibolu Guney and Malkara where we even spot what appears to be a bride and groom heading off on their honeymoon!

Lunch is again at a roadside cafe. We walk in to see workers preparing foods just inside the doors. We have eggplant and meat dishes along with some spinach stuffed bread. As we sit down with our food, a fairly strong thunderstorm hits and we watch torrential rain soak everything outside. But by the time lunch is over, the storm has abated.

Back on the bus, we travel the last two hours to Istanbul. As we enter the city, we drive under an ancient aqueduct. No more explorations for us today. We arrive in Istanbul around 4:30 PM and debark the bus with everyone else. This tour is over. Oz does make sure we all have rides to our chosen hotels on a smaller coach.

This coach takes us to our hotels pair by pair with our travel friends. Yes, many of them are now friends, some of whom we will stay in touch with via social media and some via WhatsApp!

The coach comes to a point and stops. We are told it is only 4-5 blocks to our hotels. But which way and where? Luckily, the bus guide says he will take us. There are eight of us, six to one hotel and Elee and I to another. At one point, Elee and I are told to “wait here”, and we do. The guide takes the six downhill to their hotel and Elee and I wait for him in a place where we question where we are.

But, true to his word, he comes back for us and helps us find our hotel. Good thing he does as it turns out our hotel is in the back of a coffee shop. We would have never found it on our own.

We tip him and check in to the hotel. We are shown to the room and are disappointed. The bed, for example, has about 6-8 inches on each side to get into the bed. This will not do. We complain and are given a different room that is much more spacious. No windows, no air conditioning, but we take it. TV doesn’t work, but oh well, we’ll tough it out.

We relax for a bit, upload photos to a computer and head out in search of dinner. It turns out we are in Old Town and near the top of the hill. We can see the Tower from the front of our hotel and it’s only 50-75 meters away! It’s the tower we saw when we were here 8 days ago and didn’t get a chance to visit.

We walk up to the tower and the narrow tiny streets are filled with shops and restaurants. We look around and find a restaurant that serves lamb and get seats in the streetside tables so we can people watch. We have roast lamb and wine and enjoy the ambiance.

After dinner, we walk around the streets and shops watching the light of day wane and the lights of the city come on. We hear a lot of commotion in one area and it turns out there is a protest going on!

We come across a five story restaurant that has rooftop seating and we go up. We are lucky enough to find there is a fantastic view of the Tower from where we sit. So a glass of wine later, we wander back down to our hotel.

See you all tomorrow!

Venice to Turkey 15

Day 15, Leave the Ship, May 18

This morning we pack the last items our bags and go to the buffet for breakfast. We have our last decadent morning meal and visit with an Aussie couple from Sydney that we have met several times on the ship. We forgot their names (shame on us) but I will refer to him as the “Arrive Alive” guy. If he reads this, he will know! I grab a couple shots of a mosque right off the side of the ship.

Then it’s to our room to collect our bags and head off the ship. We have elected to handle our own luggage as it is faster. We hire a cab and go to a hotel to be picked up for our next tour. We have to wait in their lobby for a couple hours. It turns out we probably could have walked to this hotel as the ship is right in sight of the hotel.

We are picked up by a black van at 11:30 AM, right on time. The van picks up 6 more people and then brings us to a large tour bus. There are a total of 20 people on our tour. So we will have plenty of room on the bus, being a standard 47 seat bus.

Our tour guide, Oz, is personal and well spoken. Our driver is Akmed. Istanbul officially has 16.5 million people but it is estimated there are 3 million more, undocumented. Gee, where else does that happen? We are headed for Ankara today, the origin of Angora Wool from special goats.

All the flags around Istanbul are in preparation for the celebration of the beginning of the country on May 19, 1919.

Noon in Turkey is not considered 12:00, but instead is when the sun is highest in the sky.

We go across the first bridge to connect continents built in 1973. In a short while, we go through the modern section of Istanbul with modern architecture and a mosque or two thrown in!

Huge flags hang from the walls, some with the image of the president. About 30%of the country likes him.

We stop for lunch at a highway roadside restaurant area. We don’t know the names of what we eat, but I have an eggplant and pepper dish and a bowl of spicy lentil soup.

We head out again and drive 4 hours. Then we stop for 45 minutes as per Turkish law. The law states that tour bus drivers have to take a 45 minute break after driving 4 hours. It also states that drivers cannot drive more than 6 days in a row and then have to take a day off! Then we drive for about two hours to our hotel where we will have dinner.

Not many photos today as the drive is interesting but not overly spectacular. Fun sunset as we come into Ankara!

5.7 million people live in Ankara. Not as many as Istanbul, but still enough to cause traffic jams. We arrive at our hotel, the Meyra Palace Hotel. It sure is palatial! Everything down to the furniture and room lights are shiny and ornate. Crown molding is ornately decorated.

Dinner in the hotel dining room is tasty yet unspectacular. We didn’t recall that meals are a part of the tour. At least it is money not spent! Food we could have at home. Chicken was dry. Salad was undressed. Oh well, can’t have it all. We settle in the room looking forward to tomorrow.

Venice to Turkey 14, Part 2

Day 13, Istanbul, May 17, Part 2

We are quoted €8 round trip to the river boat and think it’s a bargain. So we get in the taxi and happily ride the 15 minutes to the boat. We get a view of the Galata Tower on the way. This Tower will become more important later in our vacation!

Once there, it takes 15-20 minutes to find the correct boat. It turns out the boat wasn’t back from a previous cruise until the last minute. We find the boat and board it right as sunset was beginning. We get underway and begin capturing photos of the city as it lights up at night. The cruise lasts 2 hours and the views are great! We even pass by our cruise ship as we start the tour! And yes, those are random rainstorms you see in the cloud formations!

Continuing on, we watch as the city wakes up at night. A lot of the passengers on the cruise go to the lower lever because it is enclosed and the crew serves them tea and biscuits. I opt to stay up top and keep my camera entertained.

We finish the cruise and are glad to get off the water for it is very chilly. Luckily, we dressed appropriately. As we wait for our taxi driver, suddenly The Call To Prayer erupts from loudspeakers all around us! It seems that we are surrounded by approximately 6 mosques, all broadcasting simultaneously! We find our taxi driver and go back to the ship. I ask him for €10 change from the €20 note I hand him and he looks at me strangely.

He informs me the fare is €80, not €8. I object and insist we were quoted €8. He either calls his boss or pretends to and the price drops to €50. Still not acceptable, I argue the price again. We settle on €40 round trip and I cave in. So beware of scams like this and possibly get your quote in writing.

We get back on the ship and get most of our packing done as we get off the ship in the morning.

Good night everyone!

Venice to Turkey 14

Day 14, Istanbul, May 17, Part 1

We arrive in Istanbul today. We don’t dock until noon. The restaurants are all jam packed as everyone sleeps in like we do. So we have what will likely be our last restaurant breakfast.

Then we get off the ship shortly after the ship opens the gangway. We have to walk downstairs through tunnels to get out. The ship has provided special paperwork to help us get out and back into the port.

We find the HOHO Bus as soon as we get out and buy 2 tickets. So today we get the nickel tour of Istanbul. We get off at the Blue Mosque and start to look around.

A local Guide, JJ, approaches us and offers his services and we let him. JJ takes us around and tells us about the mosque. He even leads us through the crowd and shows us how to cut the line without getting into trouble. We check the dress code and Elee buys a shawl to abide by the rules.

The Blue Mosque is spectacular as you will see in the photos. It was built in 1609.

We finish our visit and JJ finds us outside. He takes us to a restaurant area to get a bite to eat when we realize that we have to get back on the bus as it’s getting late. JJ helps us get back to the bus stop quickly and we bid him goodbye as I slip him a €10 note. He was worth it!

Traffic in Istanbul is gnarly and it takes quite some time for the bus to get us back to the port. Once there, we have to walk over a mile through security and tunnels to get back on the ship.

It’s 6 PM by the time we get on the ship. We go online and book a night trip we noticed a couple weeks ago. It turns out there are night river cruises available for a meager €12 each.

We grab a bite to eat in the buffet and head back out to the taxi stand after walking that mile plus to get out. See the next Post to see the trip!