In the light of day our street is more inviting, but still desolate. There are two buildings near by that were gutted by fire some time ago and never rebuilt. Their outside hulk stand in defiance.
We headed off early this morning to get our morning coffee, explore the area in the early hours ahead of a tourist onslaught (if there were one), and to visit the SOK market. First stop, the Italian coffee shop Ellen spied last night. There it was and the barista, a very Turkish looking fellow, spoke English reasonably well. Ellen ordered a single espresso machiado and I a double cappuccino and a berry cream filled tart. Ellen found a yoghurt granola breakfast meal in a cup thing.
When the espresso arrived, my cappuccino was a disappointment. I should have known better than to order the penultimate Italian drink outside Italy after just having visited. Ellen was funny though. Her single espresso machiado arrived in a demitasse with a small dollop of foam. It looked quite small; Ellen was crestfallen, “Is this what I ordered” she asked. Yes, that is a espresso machiado sweetie.
Tomorrow we will seek out some Turkish coffee. When in Rome…
From the coffee shop we walked further up to where the road ends in a shopping boulevard. We were early; most shops don’t open until 10 Am. We turned right looking for a bookstore to find a tourist map and perhaps a Turkish-to-English tourist cheat sheet. Walking down the street it became apparent that the street was organized by vendor type interspersed with coffee houses and Turkish Delight vendors. First were the shoe sales which went on for quite a time. In the middle of that area we found the Russian Embassy, a double gated large well maintained compound. A bit further there was another official looking building that I thought might be the equivalent of our immigration as there were a number of people waiting outside. Ellen asked the guy in front of the Russian Embassy and discovered it to be the Swedish Embassy. A block down were the Dutch and English Embassies.
A bit further along we found the Tunnel stop Sishani, an entrance to the subway. I have never been in a subway that went that far down underground. There were four escalators, two of them long and steep as well as two people movers, horizontal escalators. Down into the bowels of Beyoglu we went to see if we could find a metro map or perhaps get an “Istanbul Kart”, a city-wide RFID card for transportation. The vending machine at the bottom was out of tickets and we headed back up from “Hell” as Ellen kiddingly called it.
Near the top there is a map for the subway system showing that this train ran past the Great Bazaar. Cool we know how we’ll get to the Bazaar. Out on the street again we found a kiosk that had Istanbul Karts and bought one.
The Istanbul Kart can be used for up to five people at a time and charges the card each time it is used. Additional funds can be added to the card at vending machines in the subway and at street level. We were good to go.
Further down the street we came upon the musical instrument section of the boulevard. This was amazing to us. There were Gibson guitars, baby grand pianos, clarinets, drums, horns, practically any instrument you would want. There were lovingly crafted mandolins and balalaikas in one stringed instrument shop. I plan to go back to play a Gibson or two and drool over the balalaikas.
Ellen and I had a difference of opinion as to where the SOK market was located. It turned out that she was correct,again, we found the market, and purchased what we needed (at least we think we did). The pastrami is extremely lean and does not look like pastrami at all. The toilet paper turned out to be paper towels (still need TP), and we’re not sure the butter we bought is actually butter. I find this sort of shopping fun, not frustrating; I celebrate differences. (Was butter it turned out…)
Traffic on the shopping boulevard continued to build as we were exploring; until it became near gridlock with cars and people “all over the place”. A fellow in a bright green std transmission Lancia stood out in the crowd. Either he did not know how to handle a stick or he was intentionally being intimidating. To move forward 2 or 3 meters, he’d rev the engine, pop the clutch, then hit the brakes. To watch him, he’d leap forward with a screech of tires and stop suddenly. You could hear him a block away, which we did while heading to the SOC. Me,”I think that sound is the Lancia guy.” Ellen,”yes, I see him”.
On the way back to our flat we stopped at a typical Turkish restaurant right on the corner of our street. We were greeted in English as we walked in (is it that obvious, oh yeah my sneakers) and returned the greeting. There were at least a dozen trays of food: beef, lamb, spinach, eggplant, eggplant with kabob, dolma, and more. Ellen had one dolma, spinach, eggplant with kabob, and a lamb dish. I went with the spinach, eggplant with kabob, and a fresh squeezed OJ. All were excellent, though not exotic in flavor. The eggplant kabob was our favorite. Most amazing to me the meal was $25 TL. The exchange rate is a little under 1 USD to 3 TRY (Turkish lira), our meal was very inexpensive.
We’re back “home” now and resting before going to the Grand Bazaar! I said jokingly, “Perhaps we’ll find a rug for The Beast at the bazaar. It’ll probably cost $8 USD and take $200 USD to ship it home”. Will we walk up-hill to take the subway or walk down hill thinking we can find the bazaar without much trouble.
Oh I forgot to mention, Turkey has an iPhone app for their subway system called Metroistanbul that we downloaded free from the app store. Also the surface tram is very quaint. We’ll be posting today’s photos on our website.
This is Big Fun.
R & E