We sat on the lower patio for over an an hour, just vegging out and watching the traffic on the Bosphorous pass by. Very nice indeed.
After coffee, we wandered along the beautiful Bosphorus esplanade and some of the streets of this little hillside (very steep) community. Some great fashion and home decor stores. Had a nice lunch overlooking the water before heading back to Istanbul and our apartment for a rest before going out for a bit in the evening.
Tuesday we thought we would visit the Istanbul Museum of Islamic Arts, but alas, it is closed for renovations. Figures! Oh well, so we wandered along the plaza on this side of the Blue Mosque. At the end of the plaza we saw this large poster...
... hmmm might be interesting. There is an art gallery at this campus of the Marmara University with this special exhibit. Straight ahead. Well, in we go and find a number of small galleries along with this special exhibit. All most excellent, especially the patchwork...
After the exhibit, we decided it was lunch time. We stopped in at Tamara on Kucuk AyaSofya. We checked out the menu board outside ...
... and decided to give it a go. Well, didn't we happen to chose what must be the busiest restaurant in Istanbul at this very moment. Unbeknownst to us they have 4 floors in this restaurant and all floors above the ground floor are packed with folks from tour buses. Going up to the top floor to the washroom was like a trip around the world; there were large groups from as far and wide as Germany to Korea... And they were all there for a reason. The food was fabulous!... Possibly the best we have had since we arrived in Istanbul! Look at the menu board above and zoom in to see the "kebab on a bed of smached hege tables" and "kebap with nuts". That's what we ordered. Excellent, even the "smached hege tables" which turned out to be a sort of "grilled chopped vegetables"... pretty obvious!.
This restaurant must have it made in the shade to be in the loop for that many tour groups. It was fun to watch the cleanup after a large group left. These guys were like machines, tables cleaned and reset, ready for the next group in a matter of a couple of minutes.
Afterwards we went over to the Arasta Bazaar to Jennifer's Haman, a store secializing in traditional Turkish textiles with an aim to reviving the particular weaving style. Worth supporting. We picked up a couple of beautiful woven towels then decided to head over to the Grand Bazaar to see if there was anything more to pick up seeing as how our time here in Istanbul is waning. Not too much going on there.
Wednesday was nominated as a final mosque day. First stop is the Suleymaniye Mosque....
... and then down the hill to the much smaller but every bit as beautiful Rustem Pasha Mosque...
... Kris dubbed this the "want not waste not - use all the leftovers" wall...
The walk down the hill between the two mosques is real interesting. Whacks of home furnishing stores (mostly kitchen ware), followed by numerous home hardware and handyman stores. Then into narrow alleys, packed with people, around the Rustem Pasha Mosque.
We left the Rustem Pasha Mosque just before a call to prayer, so our timing was pretty well perfect. Besides it was now lunchtime for us. Leaving the mosque we joined the bustling alley crowds as we made our way over to the Hamdi Restaurant, near the Spice Market. It was so good last week we decided a repeat was in order... and it was every bit as good this time... those pistachio meat balls are darn tasty.
After lunch it was still early so we headed over to the Topkapi Palace to finish off the Harem part which we didn't get to on our first visit. We also found out that the museum pass we had did actually include the Harem. Turns out the passes used to be 72 TL and did not include the Harem, but was recently changed to 85 TL and does include the Harem. We hit it right in the transition period when signs had not all been changed and of couse any tourist books on the subject are now out of date. That's life sometimes.
Anyway, the Harem...interesting with the usual great tile work and cool architecture details..
Before leaving the Harem we went over to the Treasury buildings to see if we just missed the Topkapi Dagger last tme, and yes we did. Got it this time though. It is absolutely stunning. Leaving the Palace, Brian decided it was time for a wardrobe change... behold the "Sultan"...
While discussing the price for the photo-op we ask if we can take pics with our own camera. Buddy says "yes"', but after Brian is all robed up and Kris starts to take a few pics, buddy starts with the "...it is forbidden" routine. The old "bait and switch" as we would call it. Kris tells the guy that he is a liar and his nose will grow... Meanwhile, during the official photo session for "Sultan Brian"' another tourist walks up and asks how much to get his picture taken "with the Sultan"... hmmm, maybe we could have had something going there. After being informed that, no, not with "the sultan", you get dressed that way for your own photo, the guy incredulously asks "wow, and how do they put the beard on you?" Kris could only laugh and tell the guy that it was the "real deal".
Thursday, we thought we'd go back to Jennifer's Hamam store to pick up a couple more towels. We washed the ones we bought the other day and, OMG, did they ever come out soft. Last time we were in Rome, a few years ago, our apartment was furnished with, well, substandard towels and we ended up buying more and leaving them behind. These new towels will mitigate any risk of substandard towels, when we get to Rome Saturday, and will definitely be making the trip home with us.
While in the store we struck up a conversation with another couple. Larry and Sandi are from Vancouver and just arrived here yesterday. They are here until Sunday when they head off to Bologna and Venice. We all ended up having a long lunch together down the road at Tamara where we had lunch the other day. Excellent lunch, excellent company. Shared some of our experiences here and some news from back home. Really enjoyed that. Very nice day.
Friday, being our penultimate day in Istanbul, was a day to finish last minute tourist shopping and to do one last tourist sight... the Galata Tower. We started out the day with our last Taksim Square Starbucks coffee then headed into the metro station where a carpet show was to start yesterday in a display centre there. Show has not yet started. Too bad. Anyway, as we left the station we ran smack into Larry and Sandi again. What are the chances of that? Chatted a bit then went our separate ways, ours taking us back down Istiklal Cd towards the tower at the far end. Actually, it was a good thing we did run into them. While chatting Kris discovered she had left a bag behind at Starbucks. In the bag were our sketchbooks, so Brian ran back and miracle of miracles, the bag was still there. Now Kris photographs her sketches in case she does somehow lose her most precious souvenier. At the tower, we picked a good day... no lineup, meaning no crowd. Paid the 38TL for the elevator ride to the 7th floor then walked the next 3 floors to the balcony. Beautiful views around the city, up the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and across old town to the Sea of Marmara...
... unfortunately, the sun was such that it was useless trying to take pics up the Golden Horn.
We opted out of lunch on the tower, going once again to Kiva not far from the tower base... and once again not disappointed. Excellent lunch, followed by one last stroll up Istiklal Cd where we stopped in at a tradional sweet shop near Taksim for a final blast of sweet! Then it was back to the apartment to finish up packing. Later it was one last outing to Otto for a couple of glasses of wine. We chatted a bit with the hostess and asked about the twitter ban imposed by the prime minister earlier today... she is expecting protests to start tonight. We might be leaving just in time!
Up early Saturday to finish packing. Pre-arranged driver to be here at 9:00 am. On the news this morning they talked about the twitter ban and how very quickly word got out as to circumvent it. Apparently the number of tweets since the ban went into effect is about 135% more than normal. Nice try!!! It'll be interesting to see how the election goes next week.
Anway, driver arrived about 10 minutes early, we were ready so off we went. At the Ataturk airport you have to go though security screening wih all luggage x-rayed before you can go to the checkin counter. After that there is a service that will wrap your baggage in what appeared to be about 7 miles of plastic wrap. People looked like they were toting around giant balls of plastic wrap! Not for us.
Business class checkin for Turkish Airlines was quick and easy. Then, their business class lounge has it's own private security check in line with nobody in it. Sweet!... and the lounge... wow, multi-floor with numerous eatery stations each with it's own "chef", lots of computers to use, a small theatre, a pool table, etc.. the list goes on. Excellent comfortable place to spend time awaiting departure. The ladies washroom has now spoiled Kris forever. More white marble than the Taj Mahal and a forest of white orchid plants by the sinks.
Flight to Rome was on time and took about 2 and a quarter hours. Same excellent meal service as when we flew from Franfurt to Istanbul, lamb chops with more than enough fixin's. Quick trip through passport control, baggage came right away, nothing to declare so walk straight through customs. Our pre-arranged driver was waiting. Nice car, nice drive and no more than a taxi, without the usual taxi related hassles. Less than an hour from exiting the plane door to entering the apartment door. Pretty hard to beat that.
After unlaxing for a bit we walked the 4 blocks to the fashionable Via Cola di Rienzo. Strolled along passed where we stayed a few years ago , a few blocks from the Vatican Musem, stopped in at a Carrefour for some supplies, then sat at our old fav corner for a spritz to reminise a bit before calling it a day. On the way home we stopped in at the restaurant attached to Hotel Twenty One, on Via Cola di Rienzo, for an excellent, albeit relatively expensive dinner.
Sunday we awoke to heavy rain. We had picked up some espresso coffee and our apartment came furnished with a Bialetti espresso maker so we settled in to wait out the rain. After coffee, Brian had a quick shower. About an hour and a half later Kris went to have a shower and the water ran cold. What the...? Sent an email off to the apartment owner asking what's up with that. We'll see.
Anyway, later, we went out a bit later when the rain had mostly subsided. Checked out a supposed local supermarket but it appeared to be closed Sunday. Will have to try again another day. Next, over to the metro where we bought a couple of one week passes for 24 euro each, then headed, on the metro, to the Spanish Steps area, thinking to just do some random wandering. Well, random it was. We walked out of the metro right at the 40 km mark of the Rome marathon...
... the marathon decided our wandering as the entire race course was cordoned off. At one point a family decided they could dart across the road in between runners... not so much... this was near the 40 km mark and the runners are focused on getting through the race, not on stupid people. This family stepped right in front of one runner causing him to crash into them. They thought it was funny but the runner appeared to have severely injured his hand, when her camera smashed into him, causing him to stop and double over in pain. Can you say... STUPID!!!
We found out later it was the 20th year for the marathon and set a record with over 14,600 finishers.
Other than that, it seemed like today was a good day for a marathon. Cool and mostly overcast. Ok, except for a few brief but heavy downpours that occured throughout the day.
Anyway, we wandered all over the place from Spanish Steps to Piazza del Popolo to the Pantheon...
... stopping at La Secrestia for an excellent lunch, followed by some ice cream at Grom, to Piazza della Minerva...
... to Piazza Argentina to Piazza Navona...
... and more... man did we walk a lot this day.
Must say, the three metro stations we were in today do not give a favorable impression. Let's see... in Istanbul they were clean, free of graffiti and, for the most part, brightly lit... here, so far, they are dirty, lots of graffiti and poorly lit. Looks like the Italian government has spent too much on bunga-bunga parties while neglecting this area. In general, we think the government must, indeed, be almost broke and have given over many parts of the city to graffiti.
Later in the day, on the way home, we stumbled upon a set of Stolpersteins, or literally, stumbling blocks. We came across these in Berlin a few years ago. First ones we have seen here, probably due to the more residential area we are in now compared to the other times we have been here. They are small cobblestone sized memorials placed in the sidewalk outside of buildings from which people were taken by the nazis...
... the one on the right shows that a woman named Virginia, born 1866, was taken on Oct 16, 1943 and killed in Auschwitz seven days later on Oct 23, 1943. 77 years old. Sad.
We ended the week at a pleasant corner bar not far from the apartment, sitting outside at Il Piccolo Diavolo. Nice...
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