Hard to beloeve it's day 2 in Istanbul. It's been a busy 2 days, but wow, do I love this city. My hotel is in the old town -- Sultanahmet -- that's Byzantine period. Yesterday, I walked up twisted and tortuous cobblestoned Byzantine streets until I got to an Ottoman Empire-time area (the Blue Mosque) and then back. Thus, I discovered that Istanbul is built on 7 hills. And I feel I went up and down every one of them, or will.
Today, I went to Taksim square, of recent fame, but they've been demonstrating here for close to 100 years, so turkish rebellion is nothin new. To the right, I saw the intercontinental hotel, the Hyatt, and the Ritz ( a surprisingly ugly building, and awkwardly-located). To the left was a long pedestrian street called Independance Street that is populated with consulates as well as stores stores stores and coffee shops. Did I mention stores? It was OK in that I had good food with bad names (milk pudding with blackened top, anyone?), saw gazillions of people walking with no purpose other than gawk at cheap touristy stuff (yes, lemmings did come to mind)' but you know what? I had fun. The weather was glorious, the Turks are funny, you can get half-sweet Turkish coffee, and the taksis ( yup, that's taxi in Turkish) don't try to run you down. What's not to love????
So far, I've resisted shopping, except for soap. Great spa (hamam) country, the handmade soaps are awesome, and the cotton towels. Guess what I'll be bringing back?
Foodwise: great fresh fish but you have to pick your spots; dried fruit and fruit pastes are amazing; fresh walnuts! Who knew how different they taste fresh? And I'm on a baklava and Turkish coffee discovery mission.
Tomorrow, we do a cruise on the Bosphorus. History calls out to me!
Good night!
Today, I went to Taksim square, of recent fame, but they've been demonstrating here for close to 100 years, so turkish rebellion is nothin new. To the right, I saw the intercontinental hotel, the Hyatt, and the Ritz ( a surprisingly ugly building, and awkwardly-located). To the left was a long pedestrian street called Independance Street that is populated with consulates as well as stores stores stores and coffee shops. Did I mention stores? It was OK in that I had good food with bad names (milk pudding with blackened top, anyone?), saw gazillions of people walking with no purpose other than gawk at cheap touristy stuff (yes, lemmings did come to mind)' but you know what? I had fun. The weather was glorious, the Turks are funny, you can get half-sweet Turkish coffee, and the taksis ( yup, that's taxi in Turkish) don't try to run you down. What's not to love????
So far, I've resisted shopping, except for soap. Great spa (hamam) country, the handmade soaps are awesome, and the cotton towels. Guess what I'll be bringing back?
Foodwise: great fresh fish but you have to pick your spots; dried fruit and fruit pastes are amazing; fresh walnuts! Who knew how different they taste fresh? And I'm on a baklava and Turkish coffee discovery mission.
Tomorrow, we do a cruise on the Bosphorus. History calls out to me!
Good night!
No comments:
Post a Comment