Honey Bunny does Istanbul

4 Days in Istanbul:

Turkish Airlines managed to serve lunch for a 1 hour flight! It was not bad either, if you like tuna, which I do. Just don't try to step in the aisle during the flight attendants' lunch sprint. Checked into the Ferman Hotel in the Sultanahmet District of Instanbul's Old Town area. There was a problem with my room, something about the water going pfooosh! I was downgraded from an ocean room for 1 night and Jon & Erin were upgraded to a penthouse view of the Sea of Marmara to make up for it. They deserved it since I was basically tagging along on their Anniversary and Jon's birthday trip. The hotel was very near the Blue Mosque and was easily walked to be going straight up a narrow squiggly street, turning right where the fresh fish were displayed in artful, bizarre (prawn in fish mouth) fashion, walking to end of narrow street, turning left or right on another narrow street and breathing a sigh of relief when one of the minarets from either the Blue Mosque or Hagia Sophia popped into view. After counting the minarets to verify which one was the Blue Mosque I was sort of oriented as long as I was standing between the two. Thank goodness Jon was usually taking the lead. I guess my sense of direction only works in wide open spaces. At least I knew that walking down was to the sea and up was to something else. This logic could backfire however since there was not only the Sea of Marmara, but also the Bosphorous Strait and the Golden Horn to contend with.



Did I mention that 15 million people live in Istanbul, not counting the 10 billion tourists (that figure I just made up by counting the number of tourists inside of the Topkapi Palace while we were there, multiplying by 2 and dividing by the number of feral cats). There also seemed to be a taxi for every person living in Istanbul circling around and having stand offs in the one lane streets. The stand offs would be solved by self designated neighborhood traffic watchdogs standing in the middle of the alley yelling at drivers and pointing in various directions. The streets were not actually one way, but could only accomodate one car at a time. This was just in the Old Town. In other parts of Istanbul such as the New District there were plenty of lanes for the cars to altnernately standstill, cut each other off and gauge how close to pedestrians they could get without actually hittting them (lightly grazing pedestrians, especially tourists is an acceptable practice, even encouraged).

The 10 billion tourists moved about the city in groups following upraised umbrellas and flags. These groups of people did not flow in and out of the city nearly as gracefully as the taxis. They were more like connected train cars following their engine, making it very difficult to cut through the middle of them. It did make for very interesting people watching. In the New District the throngs of people were mainly Turks out for the evening, all dressed in black. We ate dinner in the New District but didn't hang around as there was a protest coming down Istiklal Street. We hopped into a taxi and asked to go to the Blue Mosque which posed a problem since the driver didn't know a word of English, never mind that the Blue Mosque is the most popular tourist attraction in the city. We managed to find it with the help of a few shouted questions to other taxi drivers.

We managed the major tourist attractions in Istanbul: Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and the Harem within, Underground Cistern, Grand Bazaar, Archeological Museum and the obligatory Bosphorous Strait cruise featuring Turkish dancing. Highlights for me were the beautiful tile work everywhere, the harem, the Alexander Sarcophagus in the archeology museum and people watching at the outdoor cafes. All the cafes near out hotel seemed to have similar menus and frankly seemed interchangeable, but had much charm. The cafe employees worked the streets, encouraging everyone to try their food. Many of the waiters had limited English and were quiet endearing with their English phrases - one even called me honey bunny.

Honey bunny was an apt nickname for me when it came to bargaining. I bought 1 souvenir in a shop which had fixed prices. Jon did much better, sticking a minimal amount of money in his pocket and claiming that's all he had. Erin wasn't much better than honey bunny but at least she braved the bargain.

Back in Bucharest now. Yesterday had a True Blood marathon watching 6 episodes due to cold, rainy weather. Did manage to go to the local grocery store and get slightly lost on the way back. More of the same weather today so might just finish Season 1.