Istanbul Revisited

Day 12

A wonderful sleep in with the only deadline set for the day is to be at breakfast before it closes at 10am. We manage this, then find the Laundromat around the corner expecting to sit for a while with a cup of local coffee as we watch the cycle progress and catch up on emails etc.  But it turns out to be a manned one so we only need to drop off the load and return for collection after 2pm all for 20 TL. Currently the exchange rate is AUD$1 = Turkish Lira 1.8 so almost half price. How good is that? Almost as good as the food, have I mentioned how good that is? The only thing in Turkey I find a little frustrating is when having to ‘spend a penny’ as they say, it actually costs 1TL (50c).  This I wouldn’t mind if the facilities are in good order but every so often you find it is a squattie not a pedestal, or it is lacking the basics like paper and acceptable air quality.  And they never have change – how can that be?

We found the Cooking Alaturka Kitchen and booked in for classes this afternoon beginning at 4pm.  It is very close to our hotel and came highly recommended by one of the other Aussies we travelled with yesterday. Then we walked for about an hour along the Bosphorus and crossed the Golden Horn to reach the section of shops in Karakoy that specialize in hiking and outdoor gear for some browsing. On the way home we had a grilled fish baguette for lunch under the Galata Bridge, something every visitor to Istanbul is supposed to do, but I think they are over rated. On the other hand the fresh pretzels sold by the street vendors are amazing – why has it taken us so long to try one of these?

Topkapi Palace from the Bosphorus walk

Looking toward the Asian side

Eric with the fresh Pretzel vendor

The cooking class turned out to be a private one as the other pair who had booked in didn’t show.  Evelyn who runs the restaurant and classes is a Cordon Bleu chef from Holland. Her partner George is an Aussie music tragic who used to play in bands during the live music pub scene of the 80s in Sydney and then held his own 60s music shows in clubs. He and Eric instantly had plenty to talk about. There was also Fayzi, a Turkish Chef to add the ‘local flavour’ (no pun intended, and Nazi to stir and wash the dishes (usually my domain).  It was a 5 course menu, described on the website as Ottoman classics, regional specialties and home cooking favourites. With only 2 of us in the class, and 15 booked in for the set menu dinner, it was certainly hands on. 

Preparing green runner bean meze

The pot stirrer

When we booked we didn’t realize we were going to be cooking for paying customers, we assumed we would eat what we cooked ourselves while kitchen staff looked after the rest. It added a whole new level to the experience and was a lot of fun besides.  Fazi had some very clever tricks up his sleeve, especially impressive with the whisk which he whirled like a dervish. Pun intended this time. We have recipes for yogurt soup, green runner bean meze, zucchini patties with herbs and cheese, lamb stew with smoky eggplant and finally walnut stuffed figs in syrup if anyone wants a copy. All come highly recommended!  The couple who recommended the lessons to us were among our dinner guests so we were able to share our recipes with them and they promise to email us copies of their menu. Isn't travel and the people you share it with fabulous!

Day 13

We decided to take the tram over to Taksim Square again and follow a city walk outlined in one of the books. We have time now to retrace our steps and seek out the things we enjoyed most about this city or discover new ones. Where Sultanamat is the historic core Istiklal Caddesi – the city’s mall – is very cosmopolitan. Café tables line the little back streets as they do in Melbourne and the main drag has everything from high fashion outlets to bookstores and silk.

You start at Taksim Square which is dominated by the Republic Monument. It features Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. He was the WW1 hero who lead the Turks at Gallipoli after which he pronounced that thoughtful dedication to all the fallen, that they are lying in peace together, Johnnies and Mehmets alike. At the end of the war the victorious European armies occupied Istanbul and were planning to divide what we now know as Turkey and the rest of the Ottoman Empire up between them and their allies. Ataturk led the war of independence that repelled them and established the Republic of Turkey. He is loved for having aligned Turkey with the west, separated religion and politics so there is civil law rather than Islamic law, adopted the western calendar, changed the alphabet from Arabic to Roman script, abolished polygamy and emancipated women…….. all in 10 years before he died. Quite an achievement; he must have had amazing foresight and been incredibly persuasive.

The food here is fabulous, have I mentioned that? We made a detour into the Ali Muhittin Haci Bekir Turkish Delight store, which is renowned as being the best and the first company to introduce the sweet to the West.  Shall share some with our MAE colleagues next morning tea if it makes it all the way home. We’ve also had to buy another fresh bagel today, these are very moreish. And check out the fresh juice places, how fabulous are their displays? 

The colours and aromas of the stalls so stimulate your senses.  We diverted into the biggest new mall and then by contrast the Rumeli Han Market because the entrance was so interesting dating back to 1870s but we found it dark and decrepit inside.

We found ourselves back at Karakoy, Istanbul’s main passenger port and always teeming with ferries plying the waters across the Golden Horn and out into the Bosphorus. New developments are evident but it is interesting to have been told that every time a company begins to prepare the foundations for a new building they ultimately end up discovering something of archaeological significance and the project gets held up for years and the costs must be astronomical.  Karakoy is also the hardware district so you can buy anything from taps and water filters to satellite dishes and hiking poles.  We now have a pair of these just in case we hike in Nepal.

After dinner at a local restaurant in the next block we were each given a Lucky Eye bead, an amulet that Turkish people believe protects against the Evil Eye: a kind of negative power or bad energy that even well-intentioned compliments might include as an unconscious dose of envy and resentment. Turks believe the envy of others can cause harm and that with the evil eye amulet all the bad energy will be directed to the amulet and it will break. This is an ancient superstition that is common in the countries around the Mediterranean sea, Arabia, Turkey and all the way to India. The Turkish name for this amulet is Nazar Boncuk. The Evil Eye amulet is everywhere in Turkey, seen hanging above doorways, from the rear-view mirrors of cars and tourist vans, or hanging around someone's neck, I’ve even seen it embedded in finger nail polish. Eric found one on a tourist van one day and tried to give it to the guide but he insisted we keep it or our luck might change. 

Day 14 Our last full day in Turkey
Eric headed off to the Archaeological Museum this morning but I have had enough of ruins and history lessons for a while so I  head out to get better acquainted with some of the back streets in the local neighbourhood. We plan to meet at the Egyptian Spice market in a few hours, easy for me to find, just follow the tram line to the Galata Bridge.  We each have local sim cards in our phones so if I get lost (quite likely) I can call. In no time at all I have been physically dragged into a carpet shop and another chap has offered to show me a short-cut down the back streets even though he hasn't asked me where I am heading yet.  Ah ha, It's not my age that has been responsible for the Turkish men not approaching me with indecent propositions, it's because I have been in Eric's company everywhere to this point. And I resolve to head straight toward that meeting.  Quite unexpectedly I find the tram line and instinctively turn left even though I'm sure I will get there too early.  It takes me two tram stops and signs to the Grand Bazaar at the opposite end of town to realize at last I should have turned right and have been heading in the opposite direction.  Better call and say I'll be late.  Bugger, that's when I discover my phone is still on the charger in our room.  
To cut a long story short I return home, find I have missed calls but he is not answering, I walk all the way to the spice market and can't find him in the crowds but he answers at least.  He left here an hour ago and is waiting for me in a cafe which I must have walked passed but he missed me.  Dripping with sweat from all that, we share a simple late lunch and then return home for a rest.  Fortunately he really enjoyed the museum, not sure I achieved my goals.

Sarcophagus from Alexander the Great's era.

Museum, once part of the palace.

I did manage to enter the old Istanbul Gar which is the station where the Orient Express pulled up.  A beautiful building, I walked onto the platform and discovered it is still in operation as the current station.

On the platform of the station

We couldn't find each other in this crowd

Tomorrow we fly back to Singapore, so this ends our trip diary. We have loved it all. Such a rich history, my one disappointment was not finding an opportunity to visit a caravanserai from the silk route days, though we did pass a few in the Cappadocia region. The travel sites call it the bridge but I think Turkey is more a buffer zone between East and West.  Can you imagine sharing borders with Greece and Bulgaria to the west, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria to the east? It has a history as a battle ground and with the current rising interest in fundamentalist Islamic followings it could be that Turkey is targeted again. We are glad we had the opportunity to visit while it is secular and peaceful.