Istanbul – Exploring, Day 1

After a short rest and a shuffling of hotel rooms — with five of us, we had two, but only one had been available at check-in, we headed out to find some lunch. Our hotel is in a litle pedestrian area full of little shop and restaurants, so finding a place was no challenge. The “maitre d’s” were all hyper salesmen with strong pitches, which is a bit overwhelming and annoying, but we did find a pretty good sidewalk cafe.

Chloe wanted a “Turkish pastry” (it ended up having meat in it). Camille wanted some cheese pastries. (Don’t think of the breakfast foods … these are more like greek filo pastries like spanikopita.) I had some hummus. The vegetarian options, while advertised, are pretty minimal. The girls had a special treat, Cokes. This may have been close to the first time I have ever let them order Coke, but I had ulterior motives. I wanted to keep them awake enough to do some exploring with me!

The clouds were starting to roll in, so we went back to the hotel to grab coats; Rob fell promptly to sleep. The girls and I packed up and headed out to the Grand Bazaar via funicular and tram. As we walked to the funicular, the skies broke open. First there was thunder, then pouring rain, and then HAIL! Thankfully, it stopped as quickly as it started. By the time the tram reached the bazaar, the skies were clear. We wandered through the colorful, vibrant passageways of the Grand Bazaar, then wound our way out and down to the spice market, which was vibrant and odorful. The spice market is at one end of the Galata Bridge, so we decided to walk over the bridge and explore the ferry dock before jumping on the tram to head back to the hotel.

When we got back, Phil had arrived. The girls were tired from all our walking, so my dad and I went out to Taksim Square and Itsiklal Caddesi – the big pedestrian shopping street. We wandered around for a bit, then returned to the hotel to get the others and go have dinner. We ate at a different sidewalk cafe, starting with mezes, little appetizer plates of varied foods. We did not order “Fried Marrow”, but since in other languages the dish was “Patatas Fritas”, we assume that the dish was a victim of a bad translation. The girls were tired, so they and I headed back before Rob and Phil were done. The street outside the hotel was noisy with a concert; we’re not sure if it was part of the music festival or not….but it made it difficult to get to sleep.

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