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Tuesday, 11 April. The ferry arrived at Piraeus about 06:00. We were taking a late-morning flight to Istanbul, so we took a taxi to the airport in nearby Glyfada instead of going back into Athens. We had originally intended to fly to Izmir and to visit Ephesus from there before going on to Istanbul. However, because we had lost a day because of missing the medevac flight, we decided to skip Ephesus and fly directly to Istanbul. (Fortunately, we got to Ephesus on our next visit to Turkey - in 1995.)
Since we were going to Turkey, we had booked the flight on Turkish Airlines. The flight was all right, but we ran into a problem once we debarked. Even though (as we found out later) there was a shuttle bus, no one would tell us how to get into Istanbul, which was some distance away, except by taxi. The taxi drivers all asked for the same exorbitant fare ($20) and would not bargain on the price. A South African couple (the Armstrongs) finally suggested that the four of us share a cab, in effect cutting the cost in half. They were going to the Hilton near Taksim Square, very close to the hotel we were going to. Because we had been a little concerned about the quality of accommodations in Turkey, we had booked a somewhat more upscale hotel (4 stars) than we usually picked. It turned out to be very nice, with excellent service. It was late afternoon by the time we checked in. Since we would be here four days, we also unpacked before going out for an orientation walk, north to the Hilton and south to Taksim Square. We found a pleasant little restaurant where they spoke English and we had dinner there. Wednesday, 12 April. After breakfast at the hotel, we set out to see Istanbul. Our guide book said that the easiest way to get around the city was to take the dolmus, a kind of shared taxi that follows a specific fixed route, like a bus. Passengers can get in and out whenever they want. Fares are based on the distance traveled. We used them often during our stay and never paid more than a few cents each for a ride. They never seemed to refuse a customer. Even if all the seats were taken, more passengers would crowd in and sit on someone’s lap. Fortunately, that only happened to us once. We were told that the term “dolmus” means full or stuffed in Turkish. Most of the cars we saw in Istanbul, including the dolmus, were full-size American gas-guzzlers from the 1950s, complete with tail fins. They belched clouds of smoke from their tail pipes. In areas where the traffic was heavy, the smog burned our eyes and noses. Our first destination for sightseeing was the Suleymaniye Mosque (1557), built at the direction of Suleyman the Magnificent. It’s Istanbul’s largest mosque. The general layout is said to have been based on that of Hagia Sophia (which we had not yet seen). (Before this, the largest mosque we had seen was the Gazi Husrev-Beg Mosque (1531) in Sarajevo.) The Suleymaniye Mosque was a magnificent structure, and in excellent condition considering its age.
From the mosque, we walked to the Grand Bazaar (Kapali Çarsi, or Covered Market), only a few minutes away, next to Beyazit Square . The Bazaar is Turkey's largest covered market. It is said to have 4,000 shops (some occupying only a few square feet), but you couldn’t prove it by us. It was like a maze inside. We strolled up and down the aisles for hours but probably didn’t see a quarter of the shops. Many areas were obviously for tourists, but others were primarily for locals. We spent considerable time in a leather shop where we bought a coat for Jane and safari jackets for our two older sons.
We had a strange encounter with a young man who was selling knit shirts in the aisle of the Bazaar. He admired my yellow nylon windbreaker and was very insistent about wanting to buy it. He made a reasonable offer, but it was the only light jacket I had along and I didn't want to be without it.
It was late afternoon when we emerged from the Bazaar. The neighborhood around Beyazit
Square was an interesting one, and we decided to walk north toward the Golden Horn. We passed
a man with such an elaborate shoeshine stand (portable) that we had to stop to look at it. In a few
seconds, the man (who spoke no English) had talked Jane into having her shoes polished. For
each of the different colors in her shoes, he had exactly the right shade. We had never discussed
the price because I figured, “How much can a shoeshine be?” I was shocked when he asked for
$10. I offered him the Turkish equivalent of about one dollar; he took it and shrugged. It was
probably at least twice the regular price.
A few minutes later as we passed an alley, we saw that there was a thriving fish market all along
one side of it. By now, though, it was starting to get dark and we still hadn’t reached the Galata
Bridge. Fortunately, we came across a dolmus route that went through Taksim and were back at
our hotel before 19:00.
There was a message at the desk for us from the Armstrongs (the couple who had
shared the taxi from the airport with us). When we called them, they
asked if we would like to join them for dinner the next evening at a "famous seafood restaurant"
along the Bosphorus. They offered to make all the arrangements, and we accepted.
We had dinner at the hotel. Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
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