Blue of Turkey

Blue Mosque. Blue weather. Blues coming on.

 

Autumn has truly passed us now and we are back to wearing cold weather gear and raincoats. After our run with the hospitals and taxis we spent the next few days with the Ottomans; Mosques Hagia Sophia, Topkapi palace and markets, markets, markets. We are now part of the wall to wall tourists and dealing with a full range of touts. Exploring Istanbul until we drop. We love it.

We then moved a little beyond the Sultanahmet area across the Galatica bridge into the swankier part of town. Art galleries, laneways of little shops, cafes and restaurants.

For our last day the weather improved. We walked the couple of hundred metres to Justinians's cistern ( after checking our our first bazaar for the day of course) before walking down the hill to the river where we enjoyed a delightful fish sandwich. From there we joined with the rest of the world to walk across the Galata bridge before taking the tunnel up towards our target area of Beyoglu.

Then a change of pace and world as we had coffee and cake and a stroll through Pera palace art gallery and a Polish art exhibition. After that, another change of pace as we watched the gathering of hundreds of riot police just waiting to be egged on by students outside Galatasaray chanting away. A side step or two and then we made it to Taksim Square and the Independence memorial.

To round out the trip we took another funicular back down the hill and became human sardines on the tramway back to our side of town. Rest a little and then a last dinner at a local fish restaurant. Great fish, average service. Typical of our experience here.

 

Now within hours of flying out to head towards home. Blue skies, the true colour for Turkey have emerged today. A bit cool though.

Not allowed to insert a spreadsheet here (as would be my habit) but to record the number of ways we have moved bags on this great experience: after a private car drop off in Canberra by friends the bags have taken five plane rides, four train trips, five ferry rides, seven bus rides, ten taxi rides and click-clacked seven times over the cobblestones of Europe as we moved from place to place. 

 

And finally, I like to to take the time to really listen to a few albums/songs as we go along. This time I have caught up with now somwhat aging "Modern Times" and Bob Dylan:

Refrain: Meet me at the bottom, don't lag behind

               Bring me my boots and shoes

               You can hang back or fight your best on the frontline
               Sing a little bit of these workingman's blues

Blue, blue, blue.