IST security makes one’s head spin. Once you step in the front doors your luggage is xrayed. Before you check in at the business counter there is a security check. Passport control is next followed by “regular” security check. Then at the gate, another security check. I guess once you have been bombed, there is no going back to simpler times. The lounge here was a disappointment - now there is a first world complaint if ever there was one! I miss simple salads and green veggies.
This part of the trip didn’t quite turn out as expected but not to worry - its definitely a city worth returning to. Friday i crashed and burned when i arrived at my guest house in Sultanamet only steps away from Topkapi/Hagia Sophia/blue mosque. I got up mid-afternoon poked around the neighbourhood, despaired at the lineups, had a bite and was ready to call it day again. Definitely too old for these overnight flights - i didn’t plan it that way but air canada cancelled my morning flight from Abi Dhabi and put me on a flight at the ungodly hour of 2am.
Saturday was a full day! I made my way across the Galata bridge to meet up with my food tour group. Compared the UAE Istanbul is teeming with life, history, cats & dogs. Galata bridge is a destination in itself - the lower reaches are full of restaurants and the upper, fisherfolk (mostly men,) and cats!
My tour group consisted of a family of four from California, dad was born and raised in Toronto, wine expert, Anita from france (american born) and Sean from the UK. We started out on the european side snacking along the way and exploring serious backstreets where the buildings were layer byzantine under roman under ottoman masonry and stone. Guide Zadir was a delight - it seemed like he knew everybody. In the european Karakoy neighbourhood we poked our heads in cafes, workshops, a pottery studio, delis, interior design studio, Istanbul’s 1st baklava shop and the list goes on…and that was just the european side.
After lunch we took the ferry over to the Asian side Kadikoy - this is more residential and less touristy. Here we sampled pide, lacmancun, some fantastic fish, and went to some food stand that Anthony Bourdain made famous. (I did not care for bread or the meat - the heat killed the meat flavour and the bread had a plastic texture.) It was a nice day so the streets were packed with locals doing their shopping. Kadir had us tasting hot snacks, sweet snacks, nuts, pickle juice(!) and the finished off the day with Turkish Delight (bears NO resemblance to the cringe-worthy chocolate bar of my childhood!
What a fantastic day…it stretched out such that i was too late getting back for the last hagia sophia admissionof the day.
A curious thing happened on the way back to my guest house. I was just turning off the street with the streetcars when one came down the hill just as a cat decided to cross the road. All at the same time the streetcar blared its horn, a young muslim women ran out in front of the streetcar to grab the cat and missed, all the traffic came to a dead stop and another two people came the cat’s rescue. The cat was “herded” to the sidewalk where is was set upon by about a dozen people who comforted the kitty after its harrowing experience - the streetcar driver only proceeded when he could see the kitty was out of harms way. I can categorize this under “things I’ll never see anywhere else.”
Cats and dogs here are mostly “strays” in the sense that no one person owns them but are in fact cared for by the city and citizens at large. The city has a neuter program for the animals and chips the dogs. Random people will bring stray animals in to a vet if they need care and vets will charge next to nothing if anything at all. Amazingly, I saw less poop on the sidewalks than I do at home. I find this care incredibly sweeeet - if only we could do that people.
Morning came and I was faced with bus loads of people in the line up for the reason I came to Istanbul. I gave up but with no regrets. In 2020 Hagia Sophia reverted from a free public museum back to its second purpose as a mosque - muslims can access the prayer or main floor, for free. Non-muslims now have access limited to the second floor galleries at a cost of 25 EUR or skip the line for 50 EUR. I suppose I could convert - French commandos did so PDQ in 1979 when the Grand Mosque in Mecca was under siege…but i would probably burn in hell(s!)
In any case it’s a problem for another trip now - I’m heading home now on Turkish airways with an 12,000 year old bun and another amenity kit, looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.
It has been a blast and a half!
