Istanbul - Day Two - Afternoon

Tuesday, 31st May - pm

So much to do here, I decided to split the post.

After our siesta, we decided to take a walk to the seaside and we ended up in the very old quarter of town, extremely steep and not too many tourists. This is Andy half way down the hill

This is the view looking back up

Don't worry we caught the tram back up eventually.

I was quite amazed at the number of shops that sell fabric, but really weird stuff. Most of the fabric in the shops is the same type of stuff, ie different colours and prints of vinyl that you might make a handbag or wallet from. I did not really see anything that made me ooh and ahh.

However the architecture was distinctly different in this part of town as you can see.

This is an extremely old and run down section here.

We then continued down some rather narrow winding roads, with traffic careening past at quite a fast pace. The thing that really amuses me is that when there is a traffic jam, they all start blowing their horns, even if they are 12 cars back. Also don't expect many people to indicate and a pedestrian crossing ... well that really is just a target for the car to drive into you. Even the lights cannot be totally trusted.

We ended up on the actual seaside, and it was a lovely walk. In fact we walked for nearly 2 hours past many locals sitting by the shore. The seaside is a bit hazy compared to Australia though.

There were quite a number of fishermen, catching what looked like large sardines.

We came across the Istanbul equivalent of the carvan park for Motor Homes. Great view of the water and interestingly enough they have a police car on hand down there at all times. Probably a good idea.

An imposing statue looking out to sea

We eventually found the tram station and worked out how to buy a token (with the help of some local teenagers). Basically it costs $1AUD for a token that will take you anywhere on the tram route. Went through lots of interesting shopping precincts that I will visit tomorrow.

We then spent an extremely interesting hour at a footpath cafe and watched the passing parade. A very entertaining feature over here is the ice cream peddlers, they are real showmen. I plan to treat myself tomorrow. It is also fascinating to watch the store holders, they stand out the front of each shop looking for business and calling out to the tourists. Exhausting really. One gets quite a thirst, and the local Efes beer is quite good.

Finally back to the room after an extremely full day. Tomorrow we plan to visit some museums and the Topkapi Palace. Caio for now.