Boats, walks and lack of language

It's very strange for me to travel to a place where I have no common language- normally before travelling somewhere, I either already have some language basis, or I cram for a bit to learn the basics, but alas, I feel rather inadequate with my vocabulary of...no words! English is pretty common in the more touristy regions, so it hasn't really been an issue. I haven't been a 'tourist' or even wanted to be for a long time, but I'm quite enjoying playing the role here in Turkey. The vendors have had a lot of fun with us- I think I mentioned how they like to really reel you in to their stores & restaurants, becoming best friends, exchanging names & business cards. One of the best lines a vendor pitched us (after we said, no thanks, not today), was to say "Come on, let me sell you something you don't need!". Their sense of humour is awesome- it works for me. It has been a lot of fun!

What a long day we've had today! We compromised, and did a private boat trip of the Bosphorous, instead of doing the ferry ride. The ferry ride would have taken up the entire day, and while I was curious to see the city from the water, I didn't want to dedicate the whole day to seeing it. When you travel the Bosphorous, one side of the body of water is Europe, the other side, Asia.

A sultan's palace- I can't keep track of all of the names, but Ian read that in at least a couple of these palaces, when the sultan was overturned, he was held prisoner in his own palace...

It was interesting to see how the density of the housing changed as we travelled the river, and to notice the styles of buildings. It was pretty common along the river to have 4 storey high houses, that were quite ornate and colourful.

A view from the water

Most buildings in Turkey are cement or brick, but there are still a few surviving wooden buildings (although even many of the wooden buildings have brick under the wood, and have just been clad with siding).

I really get drawn in by the wooden clad buildings- I find them so beautiful!

The less expensive boat ride came with few perks, so instead of having someone explain what the various palaces & mosques were, we had to rely on our little travel pamphlet to explain. All the same, I'm glad we did it this way. After we were done, and we fought off our seasickness (Isaac had it worse than me!), we walked into a different part of the city, on the other side of the river from where we are staying, to see the Galata Tower, a nine storey tower from the 1300's. It is truly mind boggling, the way things were built so long ago. Once upon a time, civilisations knew how to build, and they knew how to construct buildings to last centuries. Now we can build buildings that only have a 30-40 year lifespan- how can this be?! It's not only the fact that buildings were built to last, but they were built with such care, and beauty. I guess if you have tens of thousands of workers, plus thousands of master builders, you can really do great things! (Although they did have to add big-ass buttresses to the Hagia Sophia a few centuries into its existence when they had issues with columns leaning to one side or t'other- we called it the Saggy Hophia, but shouldn't likely broadcast that too widely :)

Note this cool parking system: they raise the upper part with a car on it so another car can park underneath. Not sure how to determine who leaves when....

In our many walking tours of the city, we have stumbled across various neighbourhoods that we may never have found, so I'm thankful for the seemingly endless walking. This is a city that invites walking! What I noticed is that they tend to have certain streets dedicated to one type of merchant- today we walked through a large area of hardware and plumbing, followed by streets of stores with lighting. Yesterday we walked by the 'Papeterie' section, with bookstores, printshops & paper stores. I love that all of the stores are located in one spot- makes for more honest pricing, I would think, but also allows you to scan a few different stores before purchasing what you desire. No box stores in this part of the city, but they must exist somewhere in the country?!

After visiting the Galata Tower region, we set out for 'home', but took a long, circuitous route- aka, got a wee bit lost. Actually, we walked a looooooonnnnnnnng way in the wrong direction. However, in doing so, we passed along some wider streets where there were much fancier stores (Benetton, etc.), and the pedestrians were of a different sort as well. Now we could actually see where some of the more fashionable clothes from the shops were- these were the folks with perhaps a bit more money, who seemed to care more about appearance, travelling these streets. When we realised how far from home we were, at some point, Ian flagged down a cab to take us back to the Hagia Sophia, which is right around the corner from home.

The Galata Tower- quite beautiful to see  peeking out from the cobblestone street

We've been talking about how few street people we have seen in Istanbul- maybe it's because of where we have travelled, but in other cities, touristy regions are good places to panhandle. Is it that there just aren't as many people in need here, or is it that we haven't seen them? On the boat trip today, someone told us that the main industry in Turkey is manufacturing, and that the GDP has tripled in the past 6 years...so if that's the case, perhaps most people are doing okay here. Of course, I have no idea how the communities that were hit with recent earthquakes in eastern Turkey are doing, but in any case, this is what I have seen to date.

 We found a vintage clothing store in our wanderings today, and had there not been a family waiting for me, I'm sure I could have spent a good hour poking around in the place. A bit of eye candy for me. There have been other lovely fashionable items hanging in shops over the past few days, including shawls trimmed with faux fur, ball room gowns, and many other treasures. Good thing there isn't any room in my luggage!

Street view from the hotel terrace

The place where we are staying, the Marmara Guesthouse, is just a hop & skip away from so many of the sites we've walked to. The owners are really friendly, and their daughter, Elif, is quite comfortable in English, so we have been given lots of good tips from her. She has suggested a less expensive bath house, so we may venture out to the bath house on Thursday, before Ian, Ainslie & Isaac leave for Thailand. (My flight is the following day). We have our own separate room & washroom, but there is a common room on the fourth floor where breakfast is served, and where some of the guests tend to hang out. The atmosphere is in between a bed & breakfast, and a hostel. Less hostel than B&B, I suppose, given that we have private accommodations, but there are people here from several countries.

More excitement to come tomorrow, when we head to the Topkapi Palace. I'll try to post some of the architectural gems I have seen in a post tomorrow.