Istanbul Coda: Walking Along the Bosphorus

Fishing in the Bosphorus. The cruise boat doesn't mind.

A funicular ride. A small archaeological dig. The Istanbul letters. All this and Kemal Atatürk, too, today in Istanbul.

First, the funicular ride.

As with the Taksim-Kabataş funicular ride from about two weeks ago, the Tünel funicular suffers the same problem as being housed completely within a tunnel and having a rather gentle ascent.

But this one is noticeably superior. It's historic. It passes through an old town with water dripping, as opposed to the sleek, antiseptic tunnel of the other funicular. And the ascent/descent is at just a little steeper angle. Still too gentle for a real funicular, but definitely an improvement.

I would rate this: worth a detour.

I then crossed the Galata Bridge, waded through the sea of humanity in their various queues to board various Bosphorus cruise boats and, once I was away from the cruise boat boarding area, the sidewalks cleared. Even though I was in the tourist side of town, for one of the most visited cities on the planet, I was out of the tourist zone. And at an archaeological dig:

Right there, where the Golden Horn separating the Old City from the New City in European Istanbul, flows into the Bosphorus, was a small archaeological dig.

The column fragments are a "tell" that this dig is from the late Roman Era of Byzantium.

Before it was re-badged Constantinople since this was before there was a Constantine.

But there was a cat at the dig.

It's not much, but it's fascinating that, not only is there an active archaeological in the middle of the most heavily touristed part of a heavily touristed city, but that hardly any other tourists are here.

There's only a few tourists at "The Letters."

Every tourist city has "The Letters." It's usually a major stop on the tourist photo circuit. But not here. There was a couple of tourists taking photos with the letters as a backdrop -- and by "a couple of tourists" I mean I literally saw two different tourists taking a photo with the letters in the background and that was it.

There also was a giant "walk around-able" map of the Istanbul tourist zones embedded in the sidewalk here.

Each one of those "stumps" represents a major Istanbul tourist site, with the name and a rendering of the site on a metal plate fixed to the concrete stump, including mosques, museums, towers, and bazaars.

This one answered a question I had:

Not verbally, but by its location and the description on its plate. It is the plate for the Beyazıt Kulesi, an historic fire watch tower that I saw lit up in green from my hotel room window. I knew the tower was too fat to be a minaret. I kept asking people working at my hotel and they did not know. But, thanks to the "map" in the sidewalk, I now know: Beyazıt Tower. You can see the tower design on the metal plate in the foreground. Maps rule!

We now reach the Kemal Atatürk portion of our final-day walking tour of Istanbul.

Let's move in for a closer look:

The founder of the modern Turkish state. And not just the founder, but the molder and shaper of the modern secular Turkish state.

And nearby is a statue of someone decidedly not from the modern secular Turkish state:

The Turgut Reis Monument. Turgut Reis was an Ottoman admiral from the early 16th Century who built the Ottoman Empire into a naval power. The fact that he is behind barbed wire is not a comment on his military prowess, but on the construction that is happening around him.

And we end the walk with the Ahırkapı Feneri Çeşmesi, the Ahırkapı lighthouse.

It looks like a lighthouse, even though it's on a very busy street in a massive mega-city. At this point, the time has come to meet my tour guide to show me the sights in a different part of the city. Stay tuned. There's more to come.

New Day, New City, Still Istanbul

Of the ten trillion boats doing a Bosphorus cruise tonight,
this is the only one that was gliding in front of the Suleymaniye Mosque when I snapped this photo.

The planned primary item on today's tourism agenda was not do-able. Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays and this is a Tuesday. So it's time to do what I often do when tourism-ing in a new city: improvise. But there is a surprise, even shocking, plot twist: the day's tourism activities included the most disappointing funicular ride ever. Ever.

It all started innocently enough with a tram ride: Sultanahmet to the Kabataş station to start the day with a funicular ride up to Taksim Square.

There are two funiculars in Istanbul: the one to Taksim Square and another which is called the Tünel Tramway. I knew that the Tünel funicular was, as the name implies, in a tunnel. So I opted for the Taksim Square funicular.

The area in which you board the funicular is inside a station. Unfortunately, you stay within the enclosed space for the duration of the ride. You see nothing of the surrounding environment. And, to make it worse, if that is possible, the slope of the ride is very gentle. I would be OK with the enclosed tunnel if the incline were steep, giving you the feeling of climbing and ascent. This was not Taksim Square funicular experience. Enclosed and gentle. What a funicular should not be.

But once I disembarked, Taksim Square at the top of the ride was incredible.

This is the Republic Monument. And a tram car that you can ride through the New City that looks like a proper tram car.

I do not know why the Republic Monument is wrapped in cyclone fencing with police signage on it. I also do not know why the New City has historic, old-fashioned tram cars while the historic Old City has sleek ultra-modern trams. Oh the cognitive dissonance.

This is the Taksim Mosque:

With an old-fashioned New City tram car artistically placed in front of the shot.

I shot this photo through the chain link fencing so that the Republic Monument did not so forlorned:

Much better.

And this is the Taksim Mosque with banners of the Turkish flag and the nation's entire pigeon population:

Time to walk through the New City.

Dessert stores aplenty. Each looking more delicious than the last.

This is more than sweet shops selling "Turkish delight" to us tourists. Not that there is a problem with that. This just seems to have a less touristy vibe, as this seems to be a street where everyone shops, not just the tourists who have a few days in Istanbul as part of a two-week package tour of Turkey and the Greek Isles.

This child is riding on the tram.

Why is he riding on the outside, perched on a little block on the back of the tram? Because he's a boy doing things that little boys do! Or, as the instagrammers would call it: living his best life.

About a mile walk from Taksim Square is Galata Tower:

You can go inside.

It's a 30 euro ticket. There is an elevator inside to take you most of the way up, I just found out. I wasn't go to spend 30 euros, which is more than 6,000 Turkish lira, on having to climb several flights of stairs. But now, having googled it, the elevator will take you up seven floors and you walk the stairs to ascend the final two floors. Those terms would have been acceptable had I known the terms at the time.

Considering that Galata Tower was built in the 1300's, more than 100 years before the Ottoman takeover of Constantinople, I am quite surprised that there is an elevator inside.

This is an interesting building I saw walking from Galata Tower to the cruise ship embarkation zone.

It's not famous. It's not a tourist attraction. It just looks interesting in a good sort of way. And, if you're a building, isn't that enough?

I ate local for a late lunch. Doner. The sauce on the left was awesome and perfect. The sauce of the right was too mild and too eggplant-y. There might have been a little eggplant in the spicier sauce on the left that I loved, but the flavor was so awesome, I will forgive it for its eggplant ways.

And, quite sadly, Istanbul is a Pepsi town. It's like that old Saturday Night Live skit from way back in the original cast days: "No Coke. Pepsi."

After my late lunch, I moseyed down to the waters of the Golden Horn.

The Golden Horn separates the Old City and the New City on the European side.

This is the Galata Bridge, which is the first bridge in succession crossing the Golden Horn, starting at the point where the Golden Horn flows into the Bosphorus.

There are plenty of restaurants on the underside of the bridge. And on the top deck?

People fishing. The Galata Bridge is well known for the number of people who gather on it everyday to fish. With fishing line and fishing poles. Old school fishing.

Oh and wedding photography, too:

Is she being married on the Galata Bridge? I don't know. But I don't see a groom, so I am guessing that these are only pre-wedding Instagram photos.

There are millions and millions of boats in this area, all there to take people on late afternoon Bosphorus cruises.

I would have been tempted to take one myself, since there are sights along the water that are seen best from the water, as that is the angle and direction these buildings were designed to be seen. Such as the Dolmabahçe Palace, north of here, where the final Ottoman sultans ruled during the Ottoman Empire's "Sick Man of Europe" phase. Things were much better for the Empire when everything was based in Topkapi Palace in the Old City.

I didn't take a cruise so we will save Dolmabahçe Palace for another time. But Galata Tower is visible in the above photo looking back at the New City from mid-Galata Bridge.

And this is the view of the Old City from mid-Galata Bridge:

Look at the cruise boats lined up, like taxis at McCarran airport on a busy Friday night. It's like everyone in the whole world but me is taking a Bosphorus cruise in Istanbul tonight.

Bosphorus cruise boat with the Golden Horn Metro Bridge, or Haliç Metro Köprüsü, in the background.

The Golden Horn Metro bridge is a bridge that is there simply for the city metro and pedestrians. No cars. No trucks.

Once you cross the Galata Bridge, you are in a sea of humanity, filled with people embarking on, and disembarking from, their Bosphorus cruises,

There are only two types of food carts here, and there a million of each. Turkish bagels, which are sort of a hybrid between a bagel and a soft pretzel. And roasted corn on the cob (which is surprisingly popular here) and, out of the same cart, what I believe are chestnuts.

I skipped the food carts and headed for a dessert restaurant closer to my hotel:

Kunefe! With an espresso on the side. From this shop:

What is kunefe? I will describe it, but it will not sound nearly as delicious as it is. Imagine a giant shredded wheat biscuit. Filled with mozzarella cheese. And soaking in simple syrup. With a few ground pistachios on top. Mmmmm. Seriously. Mmmmmm. It sounds like a train wreck from my description, but it is beyond awesome. It is definitely not something you want everyday. But my favorite Turkish restaurant in Las Vegas closed during the covidiocy, so it has been several years since my last kunefe. I will not wait that long for my next.

Long day. I'm tired. Tomorrow I will be a new destination, but the flight got postponed from early afternoon to evening, so I will have one more tourism day in the Old City.

I will end with one last photo of the Blue Mosque, with the German fountain in the foreground, in the late afternoon sun.

Sunrise Over the Bosphorus

Morning view from the hotel roof. Bosphorus on the right. Blue Mosque on the left.

I got an extra huge dose of sleep yesterday, recovering from jet lag and travel-induced sleep deprivation. That meant I woke up before dawn, actually rested. And that gave me the chance to see sunrise over the Bosphorus.

Here is the view from my hotel room balcony, dawn's early light:

The sun kept getting brighter, as the sun does this time of day:

Finally, at the time of my hotel breakfast, the hotel rooftop shows the blue sky and the blue water of the Bosphorus:

More feelin' blue.

I got a very busy day of tourisming ahead and it is time to jump jump jump to it.