Leaving Istanbul

Today, Sunday 19th, was our last day in Istanbul.

Topkapi Palace from the Bosphorus

This is an amazing city. It has a huge population - claimed as around 25 million (the population of Australia and NZ). For such a huge city, it all seems to work remarkably well. Sure the roads can get crowded, but it isn't gridlock and everybody handles it all with remarkable good cheer. In fact, the overwhelming impression of Turkish people is of their welcoming nature. It can be a taxi driver, a shopkeeper trying to entice you into their carpet store or restaurant, the staff at the hotel or the person on the other side of your attempt to bargain in the bazaar - invariably they have a smile and a welcoming manner and they don't hassle you.

Maiden's Tower on the Bosphorus

The core of Istanbul is the water - the Bosphorus splits the city (into Europe and Asia) and the long Golden Horn harbour further splits the European side into a northern and a southern section, with the Sea of Marmara forming a southern bound to the city (which spills around its edges). All the water is alive with shipping. Masses of ships seem parked or queued in the Sea of Marmara and a constant stream of ships threads the channel up the Bosphorus, with only about 400 or 500 metres between them. All around this, flocks of ferries dash across the Golden Horn or between Europe and Asia, with the whole organized chaos working like a well oiled machine.

As our plane left at 7:30 pm, we decided to venture to Asia on the ferry. We took a ferry to Kadikoy, about 35 minutes from the Sirecki landing near our hotel. The trip gives you a wonderful view of the busy waterways and a great view of Istanbul, particularly of the older part contaning the Topkapi, the Haya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. We wandered around Kidikoy and had a morning tea. This wasn't a tourist area - there was no English in evidence.

Sunday crowds on Istikal Caddesi

To continue, we took a further ferry back to the European side to an area north of the "new town" called Besiktas. We walked down from the landing alongside the large Dolmabahce Palace (the palace of the Sultans from the mid 1800's). Given the length of the queue, we decided to skip the tour and walked steeply uphill to Taksim at the head of Istikal Caddesi. This was heavy work in the heat and humidity, so we stopped for lunch and a beer on the terrace of a restaurant called Haci Baba. We had a tasty Ottoman meal called Lamb Tandor.

We strolled down Istikal Caddesi, which, if anything, was even more crowded than it was when we were here on Friday night. We arrived back at our hotel to drop a few things and then headed off for some last minute shopping and a final beer at our nearby rooftop terrace.

Shortly after, our taxi arrived and delivered us to the airport and our flight home via Doha. The green park strip bordering the Sea of Marmara was crowded with Istanbul families enjoying picnics and bar-b-ques.