Istanbul

Two short flights brought us to Istanbul’s brand new airport where we sailed through customs and were met by a driver that we had arranged online. The trip into the city took about 40 minutes. Heaven knows how long it would have taken if he had been driving at a normal rate of speed…much, much longer!

Our hotel, The Kaftan, is in the center of the old city. The first comparison that came to mind was San Francisco, because of the steep hills. Narrow cobblestone streets with small hotels and businesses crammed in tightly. Our hotel arranged a ride for us to a fish restaurant located under one of the bridges that crosses the Golden Horn waterway, an estuary that flows the Bosporus Straight.

We decided on a whim to start our exploration of Istanbul with a food tour. Brilliant! Getting there presented a challenge. We had signed up for a Secret Food Tour, but the meeting place and tour were on the Asian side of Istanbul, across the Bosporus Straight. The hotel staff are very nice and helpful, but a bit vague with directions. We needed to walk to a tram station, purchase an Istanbul card which, happily, serves for all modes of transportation. Then we needed to find the appropriate metro station where the metro crosses under the Straight, change lines and travel to Kadikoy. We had assistance from two nice people, who in the end both wanted to sell us carpets, but hey… So, crossing from Europe to Asia, we began our food tour with a Turkish breakfast.

We moved on to some regional specialties. Our guide, Nusret, is Turkish, married to a Canadian. He explained the food traditions, many aspects of the culture and was very genial and informative.

The Asian side is more residential and youthful. Since it is Ramadan, the Muslim religious month where people fast from sunup to sundown, the streets and restaurants were not full to overflowing, for which we were grateful.

Our last stop was for dessert, but our guide had us try “just one more special soup,” which was incredible. The dessert was a thin pastry filled with clotted cream and pistachios and fried. Amazing.

We made our way, groaning and waddling, to the ferry and crossed back to Europe in the late afternoon sunshine. We managed to find the correct tram to take us back to our hotel area. Thank goodness it was another 22,000 step day.

After a short rest, we ventured out again to see a religious ceremony of the Sufi sect, the whirling dervishes. We were not allowed to photograph the ceremony.

On our return stroll through the square between The Hague Sophia and the Blue Mosque, the sunset call to prayers and breaking of the fast began. Hard to find words to describe how exotic that experience felt.