There are tons of hotels, more
or less affordable, in Istanbul. Finding a decent one in the old town is easy,
figuring out if an elevator is available not so much, and there was also the
parking issue. In the end, the trick was to find a hotel on one of the hotel
booking websites and then look for the hotel’s official website and talk to the
manager directly. Once I figured that out, it didn’t take long to make our
booking. No elevator, but we can manage a few steps so no problem there.
At one point, I flirted with
the thought of going a few days to Thessaloniki too, I even found an apartment,
but other things came up, and in the end I didn’t even mention it to the family.
So here we were, the usual suspects (we'll
keep their names secret to protect the innocents, hehe): my mom (MM), my dad
(MD), little brother (LB) and yours truly. The same car, plus the two GPSs and the
roof box, and a trunk full of food. As usual, these are random thoughts about
our vacation and the places and things we've seen, non-edited (editors, stay
away!), and most likely politically incorrect. :P Some things might be missing
as I wrote the diary a month after we got back. OK, let the circus begin!
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Our yearly summer vacations
taught me it’s best to schedule our departure day on a Sunday to have a full
day for preparations previous to that. We had two days because of the bank
holiday on Friday, which I had simply forgotten about while planning the trip.
Still, guess when we finally managed to leave the house? At 2 PM. Not exactly a
problem since we were only going to Giurgiu, near the south border, but still.
The sky was clouded after several days in a row with over 30 C, which was good,
it even rained for a few minutes, but the traffic was insane.
The sun was setting when we
arrived to Bucharest. We had to take a detour to pick up LB from my cousin’s
house who had moved in a village outside Bucharest. The GPS didn’t recognize
the address, so we went in blind, having no idea where we were going and based
on only some vague directions. To make it worse, the cell phones had no signal
in the area. If I hadn’t checked out the location on Google maps a few days
earlier out of curiosity, we would have driven in circles even longer. Since it
was already dark when we got there, we saw little of the yard and outside of
the house, but we were impressed by the number of stray dogs.
We picked up LB and headed off
to Giurgiu to MD’s friends where we were going to spend the night. They had
been waiting for us with the dinner ready for hours, so of course it got long
after midnight by the time we went to bed. Oh, we slept in a kick-ass round
room!
Monday, August 18, 2014
We managed to leave our very
hospitable friends by 10 AM (this is considered a decent hour, according to our
standards), and after a short stop at the market to get vegetables and fruits,
we were on our way.
Bulgaria looked as poor as I
remembered it from ten years ago, still despite the poverty, they still manage to
have better roads than us. Poor villages, with many unfinished houses, and we rarely
saw any cars on the empty roads. It was as if aliens had come and abducted them
all.
The little we saw of Veliko
Tarnovo, we liked a lot. We talked about stopping on our way back to visit it
properly, which I think we all knew wasn’t going to happen because we’re always
late and on the rush.
Around noon, MD got tired and
let MM drive while he slept in the back seat. The plan was to follow the route Veliko
Tarnovo – Stara Zagora – Svilengrad – Edirne, only we must have taken a wrong
turn somewhere on the way because instead of passing by Stara Zagora, we ended
up in Nova Stara, which is also on the route to Istanbul but more to the east.
MM was freaking out, thinking we were lost since we didn’t recognize any of the
names on the plate signs, but I insisted that as long as the sun was on the
right side and we were traveling south, it was fine. MD slept during the entire
drama.
We woke him up before reaching
the border because MM didn’t want to drive in a country she was unfamiliar
with, and we put on some gas. We had to pay cash since they didn’t take credit
cards, and we suspected we got fooled when we received the change in the local
currency, but we had no way to check the exchange rate so we just moved on.
Passing through the border
controls went rather fast despite having to show our papers like four times.
Good thing we had the car papers translated into Turkish, or we would have been
forced to turn back.
Turkey. Better roads, more
civilization. Only a few kilometers into the country, and I was already
impressed. I hadn’t expected them to be so advanced and so much ahead of us.
Granted, all I knew about Turkish people from our history books was that they
used to cross the Danube and steal our women. Really, if they want to join UE,
they get my vote.
We had no sticker to pay for
the Edirne – Istanbul highway, but since it could be bought later on at the
post office, we didn’t fret about it.
Istanbul started long before
getting to the old town, many sky scrappers and new buildings at the periphery.
It was all so big and the traffic so busy that if the GPS hadn’t known the way,
we would have been forever lost.
Well, we did feel a little lost
when were unable to find the hotel. MM got out of the car and asked a carpet
store owner for directions. He didn’t know where the hotel was, but he saw the
phone number on the paper with the address so he pulled out his phone and
called the front desk. We could have done that too, but while the manager had
been very accommodating during our email exchange, his English was just so so,
and we figured it would be much worse over the phone.
We were told to wait where we
were, and a guy showed up shortly after that – a sign that they were prepared
for this type of situation – and led us to the hotel. There we had a nice
surprise. Because the hotel was advertized as having an elevator when it didn’t
have any, we had been upgraded to a newly refurbished apartment on the first
floor and we were allowed to park the car and leave it in the street in front
of the building for the entire stay.
The apartment was very chic
despite not having a real stove and the small fridge. Beds were good, and while
we could hear everything happening in the street, sleeping was quite possible
with the windows closed. The only thing I would complain about was the absence
of a regular table, which made eating and using the computer uncomfortable.
We ate quickly and headed out.
The hotel was located 5 minutes away from Sultan Ahmet Park, with the ancient
hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and the colored fountain, and this became
our daily route for leaving and returning to the hotel. In fact, we crossed the
hippodrome so many times that we decided to change out name from the traveling
bunnies (the way my uncle call us when we’re on vacation) to the racing horses.
It was a bit windy, and after
spending the entire day cooked up in the car, MM worried I might catch a cold.
We didn’t want to return to the hotel to get a sweater, so we used the change
given by the hotel manager to buy a purple shawl. I guess MM will have
something new to wear this fall.
We headed to the water and
walked along the quay to Galata Bridge, passed underneath it through the
passage and continued on the quay until the end through the crowd of street
vendors. It was past midnight when we made it back to the hotel.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Since it was our first day, we
decided to take it slow. We left the apartment between 10 and 11 AM (our usual
hour regardless of how early we tried to wake up) and enjoyed the hippodrome,
Sultan Ahmet Park, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and the fountain in the daylight. Really
beautiful, and plenty of tourists around. A street vendor tricked us into
buying an Istanbul guide. We already had one with us, but it was nine years old
so…
Then we went to visit the Grand
Bazaar. The place is huge, lovely arched ceiling, but the whole building is in
badly need of repairs. The stores are packed close together, not much different
from our malls. Aside for the traditional stuff, I wasn’t impressed with the
regular merchandise or the prices. Of course, I was already tired after
cruising the first aisle full of only jewelry stores. I haven’t seen that much
gold put together in my entire life, more than on the golden bridge in Florence
even.
We spent a couple of hours in
there without buying anything, and then we moved to the spice bazaar, smaller,
and oh so crowded. Oh, full of more sweets, spices, and tea than one could use
in a lifetime. We crossed it twice, and when we got out in the square next to
the Small Mosque, MM wasn’t with us. MD said she was just behind us and asked
us if we wanted an ice cream so busied ourselves with the ice cream for a
while. Then MM came storming out, pissed because we left her in there and
didn’t go back after her. In her defense, her purse was with us, which included
her phone, wallet, passport, and she didn’t know the hotel address. But the ice
cream was good…
We visited the animal market,
book market, and grocery market nearby while she gave us the silence treatment,
then we returned to the hotel for a late lunch and rest.
In the evening, we went out
again on the quay, which became our favorite evening walk. This time we went
along the length of the bridge, crossing all the restaurants on the water
level. On the west side, right at the end, it’s a restaurant, rather expensive
considering the dress code, but with really good dancing music.
First general impressions:
- Istanbul is a beautiful city,
but tourists leave a lot of litter behind.
- we heard English, French,
Spanish, Russian, and Romanian, duh, however, Turkish people don’t speak
English that well. They’re helpful, though, and polite, even while driving.
- everyone seems to wear
flip-flops. I know it was hot, but I don’t know how they managed to walk in
those things on those streets. Pavement’s not so good.
- many of the women still wear
traditional attire, which ranges from fully clothed to which several other
layers are added like head scarf, long coat, another long black coat, big
overall black robe, black head piece, with the occasional black face cover
(creepy!). The make-up consists of lipstick and black eyeliner. And they wear
quite a bit of gold.
- it’s full of sweet shops, tea
shops, and carpet stores. There are restaurants, hotels, and souvenir stores
everywhere; the blue glass eye that’s supposed to bring luck seems to be very
popular.
- I love their lively ceramics
and colorful lamps!
- popular food sold in the
street was corn on the web, water melon slices, and oysters, though who would
risk eating those after sitting in the sun the whole day.
- I don’t think I’ve seen more
than two dogs on a leash and a couple of stray ones, but there are cats
everywhere, and it’s clear people are taking care of them because there was cat
food on the sidewalk in every street. After recently losing our kittens, it was
bitter sweet to see so many cats around. Unlike the long-tailed cats from
Croatia, these ones had faces looking different than ours. Weird.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
It was time for art and
culture. So at noon, when the sun shone brightly on top of our heads, we hid
from the heat inside Hagia Sophia. Massive, red brick walls, typical Roman
architectures. Lovely golden ceilings with green decorations. Plus a grumpy cat
sitting on a threshold, who glared at us, annoyed by all the visitors’ flashes
who wanted to take a photo of it.
The inside was undergoing
repair works so it was hard to take a good look at the entire room because of
the scaffolding on a side. MM claimed it was still there when they visited nine
years ago. The boys went to check the upper level and take more photos from
above, and before leaving, MM wanted to stay in line at the wishing column.
She’s got great elasticity, so she managed to do a full circle with her hand on
that bronze disk. It’s supposed to bring you health, but I think all she got
was germs, considering how many people had touched it only that day.
Back to the heat and hurrying
to the Blue Mosque where we had to take off our shoes and cover our heads with
a scarf. Well, the women did, which is a huge discrimination if you ask me. The
entire walls and ceiling are covered in blue mosaics, very delicate and pretty,
but a little too busy for my taste. The all around windows were a nice effect
though. The carpet looked clean despite how many barefooted people walked on
it, but it didn’t smell so good.
We went next to the small
mosque from across the square. It had a cute, small yard in front where we
refilled our water bottles. The tap water was ok but tasted bad, so we had to
rely on bought water. This one didn’t taste much better either.
Since it was so hot, we decided
to head south and see the Marmara Sea from close. The quiet neighborhood was
nice and we got to visit two more mosques on the way, and see more cats. LB set
his eyes set on a tiger eye beads on a string, but MM didn’t feel like
bargaining with the vendor to make him drop the price (she’s very good at that),
so we got the pleasure of him grumping about it the entire rest of the week.
We reached a dead end, and
while we figured we were only a couple of streets away from the water, there
was no way of getting there. Since we weren’t in the mood to walk much longer,
we headed back to the hotel, passing through a rich vegetable market on the
way.
Usual evening walk on the quay
later that night.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
We’d talked about taking a bus
or something to get to Taksim Square on the other shore, but in the morning
they decided they wanted to walk. Crossing the bridge was fine, but there was
work on the road on the other end, so we had to take a slight detour which took
us through a small bazaar where we spent more time than needed.
The climb up the hill was a
steep one. Oh, did I tell you Istanbul is full of up and down streets? Well, it
is. Luckily, the effort was worth it. I absolutely loved Istiklal Cadesi, the
pedestrian boulevard. It reminded me of the old part of Köln.
I wasn’t impressed by Taksim
Square, even less by the patrolling police cars armed with water canons, but
the little streets around it were pretty cool. We even found a set of Turkish tea
glasses LB wanted to buy and had been searching for for a while.
We walked back on the same road
and stopped to look in the cat yard – there’s a yard towards the end on the
right side of the street and there must have been over 20 cats lying in the sun
there. Then we made it to Galata Tower, circled it, and it was all down hill
from there. Just before reaching the bridge, I hit my knee, which considerably
lowered my spirit, but compared to other times, it could have been much worse.
I think it was the only day
when we were too tired to go out for an evening walk.
Friday, August 22, 2014
The hottest day so far, so of
course we had to spend it inside a museum. Topkapi Palace is in fact a
collection of several small museums, most of them located in the third
courtyard.
The first courtyard looks like
a regular park surrounded by high stone walls. It’s where we had to wait in
line for tickets along with too many other sweaty tourists.
The second courtyard includes several
models of the palace, the entrance to the harem and the one to the third
courtyard through the Gate of Felicity.
The tour started well with the
Audience Hall in the third courtyard, a nicely decorated pavilion right in
front of the entrance, including the sultan’s bed, which was huge. As soon as
we entered the courtyard, it stopped being so hot, the heat being replaced by a
pleasant breeze.
Out of the one or two-room
museums, the ones that stood out were:
- the clothes museum – we
noticed how tiny people’s necks were back in the days, based on the clothes
neck openings;
- the weapon museum – swords,
swords, and more swords, all heavily decorated, especially the Turkish ones.
The Huns’ swords were over 1.5 meter long, big and heavy, probably used on
horses and carried with two hands. One simple sword stood out, the one
belonging to Stefan the Great. Simple but obviously very efficient if you check
all of his victories recorded in our history. Bayasid’s sword resembled a snake
and didn’t look efficient at all, no wonder we beat him.
- the ancient texts library –
one passage caught my attention because it stated the prophet was a regular
looking man, not too tall or too short, and with white skin. Umm, okay.
Once we entered the fourth
courtyard, we stopped on the south-east terrace to rest and look at the sea.
Then it was time for my favorite part of the palace, several small kiosks
decorated with many windows and covered in mosaics. My favorite was the sofa
kiosk.
By the time we were done with
the fourth courtyard, we were tired and the rest of the family complained about
being hungry, so we skipped the harem and went home.
In the evening, we went out
again on the usual route towards the quay. We had an extra mission as we had to
look for souvenirs for the friends and family back home, so it took a while.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
During each trip, there has to
be a day that feels like it was wasted. This was one of those. First, we woke
up late and decided to postpone our trip to the Asian shore. Second, LB woke up
with some kind of itchy bite marks on his forearms, and he was in a terrible
mood all day.
So, we headed to Suleyimanie
Mosque, up yet another hill. Hot, a long way to go, and when we got there the
mass was on so we had to wait. The courtyard was big and impressive, but rather
cold. The garden surrounding it was better and with a nice view over the water
and city. The cemetery was closed.
Entering the mosque was quite a
hassle and made for a terrible experience. The interior reminded me of the Blue
Mosque, only bigger, colder, and less decorated. The carpet smelled even worse.
We returned by Valens Aqueduct,
then along the quay for a bit. We wanted to wanted to visit the Small Mosque
but couldn’t, so we went up the hill through the busy market streets. One of
them was so crowded you could only pass through with great difficulty. Those
vendors had to have a lousy day since no one could stop to buy anything.
Since it wasn’t late enough, we
went back to our usual walking area. And of course we remembered we’d seen
another market close to the Mosaic Museum and we had to check it.
LB was feeling worse, so after
we returned to the hotel, MM and MD went out again to look for a pharmacy and
get some ointment for him. Unfortunately, being weekend, they were all closed. They
did, however, brought him the tiger eye beads he wanted, and of course MM got
them cheaper. Some online digging and heavy use of Google Translate revealed
the on-duty pharmacy for our area was close to Suleyimanie, and we were all
like “No way we’re going all the way back there!” So we just went for our
regular evening walk. Finding some trinkets on the way improved LB’s mood even
more.
MM’s mood kind of dropped when
we made reservation at a hotel in Thessaloniki. I had mentioned my initial
vacation plan during one of those “We only have X days left of staying here?
Why didn’t we book more nights from the start?” talks, and MD had really set
his mind on it after that.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
We managed to take a boat and
sail to the Eastern coast before noon. Granted, the ship had no sails and both
MM and I got seasick while waiting to leave the pier, but the cruise was smooth
and enjoyable after that.
Despite the heat, we walked
along the border of the water until we reached the harbor, and then we turned
and went up the hill, yes, yet another one, to explore this side of the city. Our
map didn’t cover this area so we played it by ear, based on old memories and
street signs. We ended up mostly in a residential area, but it was nice and
quiet, and we found a mini-market to buy drinks, and then a pharmacy for LB. The
eruption on his skin had gotten worse since morning, so we had to agree those
weren’t bite marks but some kind of allergy or food poisoning. Poor thing, he’s
the one most likely to get sick while abroad out of all of us, just like the
cat who’s often getting sick while we’re away.
We went down the hill on the
other side and explored the square and market near the harbor until the time
for our boat ride came. We headed back to the hotel, but only for a quick stop
because it was our last evening in town and we wanted to make the best of it.
So we went on a last minute
souvenir hunt. If you plan to get those 3 baclava boxes packages that are sold
everywhere, don’t! The boxes might look nice and big, but that’s just the box.
They only contain twelve pieces of baklava when there’s room for twice as much.
Of course, we only discovered that when we opened them at home. Man, we were
glad we hadn’t tried to give them as present to anyone. It would have been so
embarrassing.
We ended the night with one
last walk along the water and under the bridge to the restaurant with good
music. There were even fireworks fired from a passing boat. A fun night!
Monday, August 25, 2014
At 10 AM, we were leaving
towards Thessaloniki. MD drove up to the Greek border where we had to wait for
a bit as it appeared to be the lunch hour and only one gate was open which made
the line crawl like a snail.
Once we entered the highway, he
let MM drive and she did most part of the way. Nice scenery, the road mostly
empty, the only thing I found unusual was that we didn’t receive a ticket when
we entered the highway but had to pay the toll several times on the way. The
road goes up and down the mountain with quite a few twists and turns, which
reminded me of Oituz area.
MD woke up shortly before
entering Thessaloniki and drove to the hotel. Because the streets around the
building were undergoing repairs, the manager told us we could leave the cars
right in front. The sun was still up while we carried our luggage upstairs, but
it had gotten dark by the time we went out again so we missed the sunset. The
constructions in the street detoured us for a little bit and without a map we
missed the main boulevards and got sidetracked, but we made it to the main
square eventually.
A walk along the water is
always nice, despite the walkway being crowded with girls in short shorts and
all of the noise and fumes coming from the cars speeding on the street parallel
to the water. Really, there should be some strict speed limit on that road to
make the walk more enjoyable and less damaging to the lungs.
Walked only a little past the
tower and then returned by the main square because it was getting late and we
were tired. Imagine me at midnight wearing short sleeves. I don’t think it has
happened since the last time we’ve been to Thessaloniki.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
We were in the breakfast room,
faced with the big breakfast, when we all had to agree this was the hotel where
we had stayed the last time too, though we didn’t remember its name and it
wasn’t written on my blog. I checked. It has also looked much better back then.
We ate, good pastry and yogurt with fruits, which made LB abandon his diet, and
then we went out.
We got a map and explored the
part of the city away from the water first while also running some errands for
a couple of things we couldn’t find at home. What had been less obvious the
previous night, it became clear in the daylight. This wasn’t the Thessaloniki
we had visited nine years ago. Now there were many closed stores, leaving empty
rooms instead, there was graffti everywhere, and everything looked dirty and
neglected. Plus, only the main roads are still lit in the evening, the rest of
the city looking like an abandoned ghost town.
More up and down walking before
getting to the water again. We followed the waterfront up to the main square,
then checked the market and headed back to the hotel through the city.
We missed the sunset again
because of their nap, and then argued over ice cream, and took a longer walk
along the water up to the new blue lit hotel that hadn’t been there before. The
metal sculpture with many umbrellas from the border of the water was
interesting.
Not bad, but not a vacation
destination I’d recommend at this point.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
My uncle had warned us to be
careful while crossing Bulgaria because there was going to be a Romania –
Bulgaria soccer match in Sofia that evening, and the roads were most likely
going to be crawling with police. So we decided to avoid Sofia and go back on
the highway towards Turkey and then up north on the same route we had come from
or we should have… Yes, I know it sounds like we were making it hard for
ourselves on purpose but… I don’t drive. I’m only the co-pilot.
We didn’t know exactly where we
were supposed to leave the highway, and the GPS seemed also clueless, so we
followed two cars with Bucharest plates. If they had gone anywhere else but
home… but they did and we made it to Bulgaria on a seemingly new road. This
time we did make it to Stara Zagora, and we arrived to Veliko Tarnovo along
with the sunset.
My aunt called to ask where we
were just before crossing the border. Gotta love the employees at the Romanian
border-crossing point. The guy asked, “Everyone’s Romanian inside?” and then
said, “Good night!” and signaled us to pass through without asking for our passports.
And of course, the moment we entered our half of the bridge across the Danube,
the holes appeared in the road. We were clearly home.
It was too late to stop by our
friends’ house in Giurgiu, so we went straight to my aunt in Radu Voda. She was
waiting for us with a lot of yummy food so it was very late when we went to
bed.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
We spent the morning in the
garden. It was windy after having rained during the night, but still warm and
pleasant. After lunch, we stopped by our friends’ house in Giurgiu, but they
weren’t home, so then we went straight to my cousin’s house outside Bucharest
to pick up her daughter. She took turns diving with LB up to Iasi. One
policeman signaled us to pull over while she drove, and of course she panicked
and wondered what she did wrong, but it turned out the policeman was only
looking for a free ride. Unfortunately for him, our car was full.
And so we arrived home two
nights later than planned to an anxious grandma and a limping cat. Yes, again.
At this point, I have no idea
where we’ll go next year. The local airport is opening some new flights, which
will make traveling easier, but it will be a shame to fly when we’ll have three
drivers available next year. Well, we’ll see… Until then!
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