Thanks for waiting!
Part of what took so long is that I wanted to be more creative and give you a little more then just a play by play of what we did, plus I was trying not to be repetitive because this all sounds a lot like what I already posted. But I have to “lay this egg”. It’s not going to get any better than this because I just don’t have the time to devote to it anymore!!
So here, finally, is the answer to the question: so how was your trip?
Plane ride: We were excited to be traveling with Air France again, ever since we had that delicious meal last September! The food on the way there was crappy airplane food, but on the way back – cha ching! There is was! Chicken curry, fois gras paté, wine, cheese, little baguettes, chocolate, raspberry tart, port… AHHHH.
It was a 6 1/2 hour flight from Montreal to Paris, about a 2 hour layover and then another 3 1/2 hour flight to Istanbul. We slept almost the entire way.
Arriving: Normally we like to arrive in our destination city early so we can consider that day a full day. But the simple fact that Istanbul is so far away, at the very Eastern edge of Europe, means we arrived later then usual and therefore by the time we got to our hotel and were ready to hit the streets, it was already 3:30 PM. Not much of a full day!
Public Transportation to the Hotel: Getting to the hotel from the airport was very easy, but it’s because I was prepared and knew where to go and what to do. I had a printed map of the system, with transfer stations and destinations marked. From the airport take the Light Rail for 6 stops, then transfer to the tram and take that for 18 stops. Done. I wonder if most people just take cabs?? Would you? That would have cost about 30 Lira whereas this was only 7. We use public transportation whenever possible AND because I think all cabbies are out to scam me. It was crowded so we didn’t get a seat, but so what! after sitting for 10 hours plus, it did us some good!
Public Transportation: Istanbul’s Tram system is modern, efficient, clean and easy to use. We didn’t take the metro anywhere, since the tram brought us everywhere we wanted to go (and we prefer walking everywhere anyway), but I assume it would have been just as good. Interesting is that you can’t transfer from one to the other; you have to pay each time. They use a token system: you buy tokens in advance at the “Jetonmatik” machine, and if you want to get to the metro from the tram for example, it costs you another token. I didn’t realise this at first, and wondered why I had to buy at least two tokens at the airport, when I actually only used one to get on the Light Rail… until we went to transfer to the Tram, and realised it would cost a second token.
Our Hotel: Our hotel (Hotel Seres) was excellently located. Really perfect! Close to the old section of town and right between two tram stops. I would recommend it to anyone who understands that it’s a basic budget hotel. If you expect too much from a budget level hotel you will always be disappointed. In an old town, if you want to be close to the sights and not pay an arm and a leg, then you have to understand that you are not going to get anything luxurious. But who cares! It was clean, the breakfast was included, the service was attentive and then internet was free!
Weather: It was great! it rained only on the first day after supper and the last day as we were leaving. We don’t like hot weather, and temps were around 13 - 18°C. Perfect for being outside all day. When the sun came out, it got a little too hot for me and even with my 60 SPF, I still managed to get a tan.
Sight Seeing / Shopping: We hit all the major sites but I don’t wanna talk about those. Just have a look at my pictures and that will tell you all you need to know.
I did my best to space the main sights out over the week; I tried to start with a “big thing” in the morning, followed by lunch and then a project in the afternoon. By project, I mean: a trek to a site that is further away then the main / central tourist area – or a cruise, or a city tour on the hop on hop off bus… or even just a lazy afternoon wandering around town with no particular destination.
Istanbul is a shopper’s paradise, and I am not a shopper. It’s all commerce and markets ALL. AAAAAAALLLLLLL. Just amazing – and I don’t just mean the Bazaars, I mean the shops lining the streets. My description (as you might have already read) is: it’s 17 belt buckle shops in a row, then 6 metal chain shops, then 10 kitchen tap shops, then a toy truck shop, then 75 textile shops, then a pots and pan shop, then 3 rubber mats shops. etc etc ………………. and it hit me one day that this is what life is like without Wal-Mart!! HUNDREDS of merchants… THOUSANDS as far as you can walk it seems… all it would take is 1 Wal-Mart to shut it all down. Sobering.
Aside from the obvious, sights that impressed me:
1- The jellyfish in the Bosphorus. Simply amazing! I have never seen anything like it! More then you could ever count, and like stars in the Night Sky: the more you look, the more you see.
2- The commercial ships lined up in the Sea of Marmara waiting to go through the Bosphorus Straight to the Black Sea. They stretched back as far as the eye could see, seems they were as plentiful as the jellyfish! I wonder how long it takes?? how long do they have to wait there?
I was curious to know if you could see it in Google Earth – YOU CAN! although they look more like smudgy dashes in the water rather then ships.
Food: I liked it more then my husband. There are few reasons to explain this:
1- He eats more lamb then me in general and know what’s good and what’s crap. I eat so little of it, that it just all tastes good. I am not a connoisseur.
2- He got sick of the repetitive menus and I have to admit that it was the same food everywhere. When I asked him how this differs from Italian restaurants, where you get the same food everywhere too – his answer was: That’s different! It’s Italian!
3- He is not much of an adventurous eater and was impacted by the lack of familiar things. I would gorge on various interesting meze platters, while he took the “safe salad route”.
Admittedly, we did fall into the restaurant tourist trap. By that I mean, restaurants focused on the tourist traffic, so they don’t really need to be good / they just LOOK good … but when you don’t speak the language, badly translated menus with pictures are easy – and if you are not in the mood for “just anything” then what do you do?? Well, in my opinion, we never had a bad meal.
We did miss out on an Istanbul Institution: The Fish Sandwich served right from bobbing boats moored near the Galata Bridge. It’s a grilled fish fillet inserted in a half-loaf of bread along with a scoop of salata (lettuce, tomatoes and onions). We just never got around to it!! Ah well. Always need a reason to go back!
You don’t actually get on the boat. The guy grilling the fish and assembling the sandwiches passes them onto a person on firm ground, and you get the sandwich from that guy at the stand.
Rooftop Cafés: They are eeeeeeeeeeeeverywhere!! Such a great idea! Even our hotel’s restaurant was on the roof. Get a load of the view we had greeting us every morning for breakfast!
Seems not a day went by where we were not at least 7 stories up somewhere. It’s common place! Just wonderful. Istanbul’s skyline is beautiful and we took full advantage!
Wine: The wine was quite expensive! I read in my guidebook that this is because of the high taxes on alcohol. Subsequently we didn’t order bottles much, but when we did, we always tried the Turkish Stuff! Wasn’t bad!
Cats: If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you know I have an album called: Cats on Vacation where I gather together the various pictures of stray kitties we come across on vacation. (I intend to move it from Facebook to Picasa one day so everyone will eventually be able to see the pictures).
Istanbul was FULL of cats! Greece, Croatia, Morocco… I thought they were packed HA! Istanbul wins the contest. No question. I am a cat-lover so it was my kind of thing – it was a trip highlight.
Come on, is this not CRAZY cute?
Smoking: I was expecting the smoking to be really bad – like Croatia was. I read somewhere that Turks are heavy smokers, but to my immense relief, restaurants and cafés were all non-smoking inside! Thank God. So the only cigarette assaults I was subjected to was a face full of smoke on the sidewalk because someone was smoking ahead of me.
Touts: Just over the top! I already said that you can’t stop for a millisecond to admire a building or take a picture (or worst of all: check your map) because it leaves you ripe for an ambush – but that’s an understatement. Being anywhere near a restaurant is like running a gauntlet. Forget stopping to read a menu peacefully if you are undecided about dinner.
It was so extreme, it became intrusive and unpleasant. Just too much! Unlike anything we have ever experienced anywhere. I don’t think there is a “good way” to handle it, basically I would say don’t make eye contact and keep moving.
Its an in-your-face (and down your throat) hard sell, and not just the restaurants – the cabbies too.
On our last day, we went to take the tram to the airport. I already researched it and I knew they started at 6AM, but that did not stop the cab drivers! One guy PARKED his car on the tram tracks and told us the tram was not running! He kept insisting we HAD to go with him… Imagine the audacity!
Shockingly, the Grand Bazaar was pretty tame. Nothing intrusive nor over the top. We could actually walk sloooowly through it and enjoy our surroundings without the annoying distraction. Sure there are merchants trying to lure you into their establishments, but not the relentless, in-your-face, aggressive kind.
Would I go back? : No. Not because I didn’t enjoy it or anything like that – but it’s like Istanbul is checked off the list and it’s time to move on to other destinations. It’s not (to me) like Paris or London or Rome where you can go back a million times. It’s more along the lines of: Been there, Done that.
Ok, now you tell me – what did I leave out?
