Fun in Istanbul (thru Friday)

Hi y'all! We finally got the wifi in the apartment to work today, so here we are. It's been a busy and fun 3+ days for us in Istanbul, although under mostly dreary skies. We arrived without any trouble on Thursday, though it took a while since we had to connect through Vienna (on Austrian Airlines, the "friendly airline"!) and with the one-hour time difference, we left home at 8am and arrived to our apartment here just before 6pm. We met Robin and Faruk and checked the place out. It's really nice, just-renovated (yes, they clearly have Ikea in Istanbul), with a great view from the apartment and a cool roof deck upstairs with an even more gorgeous view of old Istanbul, the Bosphorus, and the Asian side of town. After some down time to recover from the travel, we wandered just up the hill to have dinner at Güney, right across from the lovely 14th-century Galata Tower. (It's now known to the kids as "the tower of the sleeping dogs" as you're bound to see 3-4 strays lazing about anytime you pass by.) After dinner, we hit the grocery for breakfast supplies and came back and let the boys crash, and planned out our Friday.

We didn't get the fastest start on Friday, and our first target was the Mevlevi Lodge, just up the street, which is where the Sufi Islam "Whirling Dervishes" are based and perform. Turns out the lodge is closed for renovations, but through a very odd and secretive non-transaction, we got a "reservation" scrawled on a brochure for a Saturday evening show at the main train station. Ohhhh-kaaaay ... From there we wandered a short way up Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Avenue), the main entertainment street in town and the former bastion of European society under the Ottomans (up until Turkish independence the end of World War I, basically). We enjoyed some pastries and teas and coffees at Markiz, a historic pastry shop with a lovely (French) art nouveau interior.

From there we took the historic Tünel underground funicular down the hill then walked across Galata bridge, with its lower deck of restaurants and an upper deck lined with fishermen. It crosses the Golden Horn harbor, which empties into the Bosphorus just beyond. We headed into the Spice Bazaar, but surprisingly didn't buy much. I think we were trying to get oriented and used to the constant attention from the shopkeepers. After a decent typical kabob lunch (and a crappy 4 lira shoeshine for me), we wandered up hill through total market-street chaos to the Süleymaniye mosque. After circumnavigating it accidentally, but with the reward of seeing the old public kitchen across the street, we found our way in ... to discover most of it under renovation and closed off. Missed the giant dome, the beautiful calligraphy, etc. But the cemetery outside was quite striking, with the tombs (really mini-mosques) of Süleyman and his "favorite" wife, Roxelana. Afterwards we headed back to the apartment, then to an amazing dinner in Asia at Korfez restaurant ...

... but that, along with Saturday (Hippodrome, blue mosque, Cafer Aga courtyard, dinner at Imroz) and today (Haghia Sofia, Istiklal after a Galatasaray win) will have to wait for the next update, as it's almost 1am and we want to get an early start tomorrow. We plan to go to the Topkapi palace and grounds ...

Oh, and I'll continue posting pictures here.