Exploring the European Side

I've spent the last few days exploring Istanbul with some friends and trying to get my bearings. So far I've been to the areas of Etiler (where the university is), Bebek, Taksim, Beyoglu, Beskitas, Sultanahmet and the Grand Bazaar. The university is pretty far north of the Golden Horn and the touristy areas (Grand Bazaar and Sultanahmet), which makes food cheaper, but complicates transportation. The buses, trains, trams, and funicular are quick, efficient and cheap, though we have to pay for every transfer.

My room

Above: view from campus

A few brief things before I get into any stories: I have 3 flatmates. I've only met one. She is a chemical engineering masters student from Tehran, Iran and apparently went back there for 3 weeks the morning after I met her. The other two roommates are Turkish and I haven't met them yet. They probably won't be back for 2-3 weeks, around when classes start.

As I mentioned, we figured out the bus system and spent an evening wandering around Taksim.

This is a hip area of town that's always really crowded. The main street, Taksim Caddesi, is mostly pedestrian, though taxis and trollies often come through. It's lined with Christmas lights that go on for miles. My pic turned out a little blurry, but if you look at the top you can see a santa with an xmas tree. Restaurants are relatively expensive on the main road, but we've found some good stuff on the side streets. Mostly we've been surviving off of fruit, baked goods and kebaps, which range from 1 lira to 10 lira from what we've found, depending on what part of town you're in.

Kebaps are not kabobs served on a stick, they're actually meat (chicken, beef or lamb) carved off of a large skewer wrapped in either a pita, baguette, or Lebanese bread (ie tortilla) and usually involve assorted vegetables. I've had one with lettuce, tomato and cucumber. Other places use onions, beets, cabbage, sheep cheese, pretty much whatever is fresh. Some of them also have a spicy sauce put on them. I have no idea what it is tho.

Turkish coffee is extremely strong and served in elaborately decorated espresso cups. Some places serve it with little cookies, others with a glass of water. You can only drink it to about the halfway line before you get to the thick dregs at the bottom. It's about 2 lira near campus, with the cookies, and about twice the price in the touristy areas.

Tea is also a big staple here. I've had two of the main kinds. Tea is served in curved glasses without a handle and is cool enough to drink once the glass is cool enough to touch. Many places serve apple tea along with black tea, which is simply delicious, especially when it's cold out. Yesterday at the bazaar we stopped for tea three times. Apple tea tastes like warm apple cider, especially with a little sugar. It's a delightful way to warm up from the cold. I have also seen blackberry tea at a few places and tried to order it, but mispronounced it so badly that they brought a different kind.

Other culinary delights: roasted chestnuts sold on the streets, especially in Taksim. Rice pudding. Sweet bread (similar to Mexican sweet bread). Warm rice milk with cinnamon. Pastries stuffed with sheep's cheese. Many varieties of Turkish delight, including a humorous one we saw in the spice market called "Turkish viagra."

Landscape and getting around: Istanbul has more than a few hills. Some of these have roads built on them, others have stairs. The walk down to Bebek was a good example of these hills. If you look far down the road you can see a tiny little woman walking up. I don't know how far down we went in feet, but we walked all the way down to the Bosphorus. The trek back up was a good 7 flights of stairs at least. Some streets have sidewalks, but cars park on them. The curbs are really high everywhere and I think it's to discourage people from parking on the sidewalk. Pedestrians walk in the street, except on main roads. Cars don't stop for pedestrians. It's more or less a mad dash across traffic to get to the other side. Some lights have pedestrian signals but you'll probably still get honked at if you're crossing during the walk signal. The stray dogs (at least around campus) bark at and chase the cars and taxis. For some reason, the drivers who won't stop for pedestrians actually slow down and try to avoid the dogs.

We spent yesterday in the Grand Bazaar, which is the largest market in the world. Unfortunately, I was so paranoid about pickpockets and such that I didn't bring a camera. My friends have pictures tho. I sort of learned how to haggle, but didn't buy anything. Inside the bazaar is a labyrinth of shops selling trinkets, gold, silver, rugs, and anything else you could imagine. We wandered outside of the old bazaar and found more shops in storefronts. A few wrong turns put us in a very traditional part of town where they sell head scarfs and needless to say we stood out like a sore thumb. I also figured out that I need to get a solid black scarf because covering my head with an orange plaid scarf to go into a mosque simply looks ridiculous. We went into two different ones. One was built around 1505 and was decorated with painted designs. It was beautiful but very spartan compared to the New Mosque that we visited later in the day.

About 20 minutes from the Grand Bazaar is the Spice Market, which is near the New Mosque. We went up there for some food and just to wander around. Outside of the Spice Market is a open-air plant and pet market. I was kind of freaked out by the jars of leeches. The pet market was just selling birds, but the area was so full of stray cats that it was hard to walk without one dashing in front of you. All the strays are well fed and tagged, there's just a lot of them.

From there we walked across the Galata Bridge, where there are a lot of seafood restaurants on the lower level, and fishermen on the street level. We hiked up to the Galata Tower, which is an old prison/lookout that now has a bar and club on the top floor. There's a discount to most of the historic places associated with our student IDs so we decided to go back once we get those. From there we took a stroll up to Taksim, following a few winding streets through the musicians area of town where every window is selling guitars, mandolins, violins, cymbals, etc. Once we found the xmas lights, we just followed them to the main part of Taksim. I think we had to have walked at least 12 miles by the end of the day. We left at around 10am and got back after 10:30pm. Needless to say, I'm taking today off.