16 February 2015 - Stepping out in Instanbul

It was a warm night in Istanbul – inside that is – as the central heating was working well!  Outside it is COLD!  I had the usual restless jet laggy sleep that one does after flying over time zones and missing sleep.  The main noise of the morning wasn’t the distant call to prayer but large seagulls honking loudly somewhere close by.  We will have to venture down to the Bosphorus today!  As our Wi-Fi isn’t working we have to sort it as soon as possible as it is our means of communication and the kids have to do their schooling.

Our street in Osmanbey Istanbul

Street view from lounge room window.

Front door to apartment block.

 We walked out to find breakfast and although we had tried to convince Luke that it was cold outside, he insisted on only wearing a t-shirt and ski jacket.  We bought a lovely crusty bread circle from a bread cart and all but Luke loved it (it had sesame seeds on it and so the fussing began).  There are many bakeries and we bought a pide with meat inside for Luke but “it was too spicy”.  Every meal is a struggle with him away from the familiar.  We finally bought a flaky pastry with icing sugar and he ate it!  Happy at last…and then he fell over on the cold pavement with his freezing little hands.  Poor little boy.  He was tired, very cold and yet again right out of his comfort zone.  For a child who is anxious about new things, this travelling is blowing all his categories with all the changes.  AND being cold doesn’t help any situation.  At this stage, we realised we were ALL underdressed for this biting wind and walked back to the apartment, rugged up a bit more, battled with Luke over gloves and subsequently resorted mittens and set out on Plan B!

Tim wolfing pastry breakfast down!

 This time we headed straight down the main drag to Taksim Square.  We found a lovely park on the way but really it was too cold to play for long.  Finally in a Vodaphone shop we rang Mustafa to fix our internet.  That done,  we found a kebab shop – not hard as there are so many.  We bought a bowl of plain chicken for Luke which he scoffed down.  The rest of us had delicious kebabs and ate them as we walked down the centre of the old town shopping precinct.  The shops were lovely, very European with lots of lights in windows to brighten the dull day.  I was reminded of other winters I have spent in Europe.  Coffee shops aplenty which are oh so tempting but “not on the budget” when we are travelling for year. The historic tram trundled by as did a few men on sedge ways, one of whom was also managing a phone conversation – what coordination!

Apt sign!

Park en route to Taksim Square

Luke FINALLY able to swing self!

Taksim Square handstand!

Huddling for warmth!

Chestnuts!

We saw beautiful displays of chocolates, tempting cakes, street musicians, many grey expressionless faces and a blend of old and modern buildings. We felt like we stood out like beacons in our colourful coats.  Everyone is dressed in drab blacks and browns and the women, in particular with their dull coloured head scarves and long Muslim coverall ankle length outer clothing look pale and cheerless. We went into Saint Antonio’s Catholic Church and admired the pipe organ and the beautiful stained glass windows.  It was a refuge from the wind but not the cold!

Doner Chicken, finger licking good!

Window of chocolate

Historic tram from Taksim

Kebabs for lunch

Really enjoying my feast!

Turkish delights

Saint Antonio Church

Church courtyard.

Looking chilly

Can you hear his passion?

It was so tempting to explore every little mysterious laneway which branched off from the main drag and we finally took a right turn and headed in the direction of the water.  We came to a viewpoint and were startled to count the number of satellite dishes.  Even seemingly quite impoverished dwellings had a minimum of one satellite dish!

View over hazy hills

Count the satellite dishes

 We wound our way down the narrow streets and staired alleyways to the bridge over the Golden Horn.  We could see the mighty Blue Mosque dominating the landscape.  We will head back there tomorrow.  In the back streets there are quite a few decrepit wooden buildings which seem to be inhabited.  We did encounter several kids begging but nothing like in India.  Around every corner is a cat or two.  They all look well fed and eager to “converse”.  People seem to feed them and provide shelters for them so I don’t know if they are strays or sort of community cats that everyone cares for.

The drizzle had started and the wind chill factor was really icy. Luke really had had enough.  We decided to take the Metro back, which is interestingly in the middle of a bridge over the river!  Walking over the bridge there is a beautiful view of the old buildings nestled into the hills on which Istanbul has been built.  Some of the buildings are brightly coloured but on such a dismal day, they sort of blend into the rest of the misty landscape.   There are loads of seagulls and cormorants, too. After fiddling with the vending machine, we realised that our Istanbulkarts need to be topped up with money but the automated machines only take small value notes and no coins, BUT give change in coins.  We topped up what we could and bought a single token so we could all get back to Osmanbey.

Down, down , down Istanbul's hilly streets.

River in distance

Back streets reveal less than optimal living quarters

With a bit of maintenance, this place would be cute!

Suleymaniye Mosque

Tomorrow's goal!

The boys were keen to stay home and keep warm while Karl, Annika and I walked to Real Hipermart – a shopping centre – to buy groceries.  It is always a fun experience when you don’t know if you are buying cream cheese or butter or laundry detergent or carwash so we had a few giggles.  Unlike in India where breakfast cereal (very western) is expensive, here we found some “Bugday” very cheap.  Plain yoghurt is one of the staples here and available in 2.2 litre tubs for 5.99 Lira (about $3 AUD) so had to have a tub!  Cheese is also huge in the Turkish diet and there is a big range of mozzarella type white cheese.  We bought some “braided  cheese” which was tasty and another circle of slightly more salty mozzarella type cheese. Fruit and vegetable prices are cheaper than Australia as are most grocery items.  We just had to add a box of Turkish delight to our basket!

Bugday for breakfast!

We had a home cooked feast of just plain stir fried vegetables, rice and fish fingers with NO spice and our tummies were happy!  The kids enjoyed some Nutella and brown bread for dessert and some Turkish delight as well.  Luke was happy with the fish fingers and raw carrot and cucumber and some cheese and ate copious amounts of them all.  We really want him to at least try some new foods but were happy that he had a good portion of protein today and some dairy and vegetables and is happy to eat the plain yoghurt.  His struggles are our struggles! The tap water here is once again non potable and even with boiling for tea and coffee has a foul odour so we will have to stick to bottled water here, too.  It is a bit of a pest because it is so heavy to carry when our main transport is on foot.

Just when we were settled after dinner and the big kids were diligently doing their school work, the internet dropped out AGAIN!  Annika and I braved the cold drizzle hoping the Vodaphone shop might be open at 9 PM – of course it wasn’t but after buying a couple of delectable apple cakes from a bakery, we asked if they could make a phone call to Mustafa, our airbnb host, which they did.  Very few people appear to speak English, and we are used to that now and it is just one of the travelling challenges we face daily.  We seem to be constantly in a game of charades as we act out and nod or shake our heads to get our point across!  Most people really want to help and the occasional person who does speak good English will often come to our rescue.

Cosy in our apartment, sleep was beckoning as the 3 ½ hour time difference had taken its toll.  I must mention another challenge of the day: the washing machine.  It is in the bathroom and seemed to turn off and on randomly until we discovered that its electrics were connected to the light switch. So, as is our “environmentally careful” habit, every time we turned the bathroom light off, the machine stopped!  Wondering why it was taking so long and bearing in mind the instructions are in Turkish, we finally got it going.  The consequence of this very long washing cycle was that several items of clothing were coloured pink thanks to my thermals leaking.  So now my trusty Birralee t-shirt (from the old Maternity Unit at Box Hill Hospital) has a pink printing on it, as do some undies and socks!  The clothes dried very quickly over the central heating units so no complaints there!