Tuesday, June 10, 2025
We went back up and packed our stuff. We planned to meet in the lobby at 8:45. My room was on the 8th floor and Tammy was on the 3rd floor. I waited for the elevator to come up and when it arrived, it was full of maids. However, they didn't get off the elevator and headed back down. Because the elevator had already gone to the 8th floor, I needed to push the button again, but it took me a minute to realize that. I then had to wait for the elevator to come all the way back up. I jumped in the elevator and was trying to hurry. I had hit the button for level 0 (ground floor), but someone had already apparently hit 1. The elevator stopped at 1 and I jumped out thinking it was the lobby. I quickly realized my mistake, but the elevator had already gone down without me. I had to push the button and wait for it to return. All in all, it took me about ten minutes to get downstairs. Good thing we weren't in a hurry!
We checked out and asked the man at the front desk to help us get a taxi (taksi, in Turkish). We went outside and he quickly flagged one down for us. We loaded up and went to Tammy's parents' hotel, the Radisson Blu Pera. Tammy's dad met us in the lobby, but the eager bellman tried to escort us to the front desk to check in. We tried to explain, but he thought we were staying the night. Tammy's parents got three free nights at their 5 star hotel since they flew business class. It worked out well because we had their hotel room longer than we were staying in Istanbul. The desk guy didn't believe Tammy's dad that he wasn't spending the night so he wisely asked about booking a taxi van to the airport, leaving at 10:30pm. The desk guy set that up and then wanted to see our passports before he would let us in. We put our stuff in their room and got ready to leave for the Grand Bazaar. We walked to the subway station and rode to a stop where we transferred to a tram. We walked a short distance and entered the Grand Bazaar. It was a giant indoor market with hundreds of small shops selling tons of souvenirs like porcelain dishes, scarves, keychains, lamps, candy, Turkish Delight, baklava, Turkish rugs, and more! Something interesting about the building where the market is located is that the floor is not flat. It's as if they just paved the hill.
We walked around and mostly looked. I bought a red silk scarf to wear to school on Wednesdays (Red for Ed), plus it is one of my school colors. We decided to look for a place to try Turkish coffee. We were really hoping to find a place where they would make it the old-fashioned way using hot sand. Tammy looked up a place that got great reviews (Deroute or something like that). We took the tram part of the way and walked the rest.
It was a really cool place. It had a courtyard type area (with a clear roof). We sat down. Then we noticed there was an inside room with an old-fashioned Turkish couch with pillows and cool metal Turkish dishes and an old metal contraption that I think would have been used to warm the room by building a fire inside. Our waiter said we could go sit there. I'm really glad we moved. Not only was it entirely authentic and awesome but we had the whole room to ourselves! The courtyard soon filled with people, but we had a private suite!
I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but many people in Turkey smoke. The whole courtyard smelled like cigarette smoke. We ordered Turkish coffee and a plate of baklava to share. The Turkish coffee was a fun experience. They served it in a little porcelain vase that sat inside a metal cup frame. Tammy and I got our Turkish coffee with sugar. I didn't love the coffee, but it was better than expected.
They served two pieces of Turkish delight in a cute silver dish with a lid and a glass of grape juice. All three items were on your own tray. The waiter told us to start with the coffee and then move to the sweet things. The baklava was delicious! I'm so glad we made the effort to get to this coffee shop!
We decided to head to the spice market next. We took the train to get there. We stopped and took pictures at a mosque on the way. Our tour guide from yesterday told us that there are over 3,000 mosques in Istanbul. I believe it because there is at least one almost anywhere you are. Istanbul also has a huge street cat population. Those are important things you need to know about Istanbul.
In front of the spice market, there was a plaza and multiple food carts selling corn-on-the-cob and roasted chestnuts (they weren't being roasted on an open fire, though). There were also several people selling seed for the pigeons. Lots of little kids were feeding the pigeons.
The spice market was fun. We didn't spend super long inside, but it was fun to see the piles of spices, fruits, and other foods.
Next, we headed to Galata Tower, one of Istanbul's iconic landmarks. You can buy tickets to climb the tower, but we had decided that we didn't think it was worth it so we just went to take pictures from the base of it. We took the tram part of the way, but then we had to climb up a huge hill. Tammy's mom was tired so we decided to stop and get lunch first because it was after 1pm. We looked around awhile before choosing a restaurant close to the tower. We sat outside, but the couple behind us were smoking nonstop during the meal and it was very unpleasant. I had a falafel wrap which was tasty but so filling I couldn't finish the whole thing. It also came with fries. Tammy and her dad split two dishes: cheese salad and lamb shish kabobs. Tammy's mom had a crispy chicken salad.
When we were done eating, we walked over to the tower and took more pictures.
Then we decided we would go find Cizek Paisaji (flower passage), which was something we had seen online. It looked like a narrow alley with flower boxes on the windows, kind of like we had seen in Córdoba, Spain. Tammy's mom wanted to go back to the hotel and rest. Tammy's dad accompanied her and then came to meet us. Tammy and I tried to find the tram that would take us closer to the flower passage, but we were unsuccessful. Finally, we decided to just walk there because it wasn't that far. We stopped along the way and took pictures of a church.
We found the Flower Passage and went in. It was an indoor area with buildings on either side and restaurants on the ground floor on all sides. There were a few faded fake flowers, but it wasn't very nice. I definitely wouldn't recommend that anyone go see it! We walked through which took three minutes because it was just an L shape.
We ended up in a market. We walked through to get back to the street. Just then we found Tammy's dad. We took him inside to show him how unimpressive the Flower Passage is and then we continued on to find Taksim Square. We found it and another mosque, which of course we duly photographed.
We saw banners celebrating the Republic of Turkey's 101st birthday.
After seeing the Square, we had to hustle back to the hotel to get ready for our sunset cruise on the river. We couldn't find the metro at Taksim Square, but, as Tammy's dad put it, luckily he found someone who could point in English. We took the subway back to the stop near their hotel and quickly got ready. We then had to hustle to the pier. We took the subway halfway across the bridge. I don't really understand this, but they have a station in the middle of the bridge over the Bosphorus. We then had to hurry down from the bridge to the tram. However, after we paid and entered the tram area, we realized it was the wrong line so we exited and walked through a tunnel, parallel to the tracks. We made it to the pier and joined the long line of people boarding. We had booked this in April and didn't really remember the details. A small number of people had paid for the dinner cruise, but most were sent upstairs. I thought I had remembered that we were going to have a snack. However, when we got to the check-in person, she sent us down to the dinner area! The table was set with a fancy appetizer plate for each of us with seven different dishes to try and a salad.
We ate while the boat left and the commentary began, telling us what we were seeing along the way. We saw Galata Tower and went under the bridges that we had been crossing to get to the old part of the European side.
Next, we got to choose our main course from fish or "mixed grill" (chicken and meatballs). I had mixed grill. I wasn't even that hungry since we had finished lunch after 2pm. During dinner, I kept jumping up to take pictures out the window. They offered us soda, tea, and coffee at different points of the journey. We went up the Bosphorus by Galataport and saw two huge cruise ships. One was Holland America and was similar to the ship we took last summer. We were served a plate of dessert with an apricot, four quince, four cherries, and two pieces of baklava.
We saw really cool sights such as an old fortress and two huge bridges that span the Bosphorus between the European and Asian sides.
We went outside and took pictures out the back of the ship. It was chilly in the wind but not terrible. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt and skirt.
I spent most of the ride taking pictures and admiring the view. We got back at 8:30. That was an incredible deal! The boat ride was 2.5 hours long and we had a three course meal all for $25 per person!
Tammy and I hurried back so we could start showering. We had to recharge our Istanbul Card (that you use to pay for all public transportation and even some public restrooms) at the station in the middle of the bridge. When we got to the subway stop near the hotel, we got a little turned around, but we figured out we went the wrong way before we exited. I quickly took a picture of two dogs sleeping in the subway tunnel and the vending machine that sells toast.
When we got back, I hopped in the shower right away. We had 1.5 hours before our taxi was coming and we all had to shower and get ready. The shower was great except I couldn't figure out how to make the water come out of the showerhead. Instead it came out of a handheld sprayer, which wasn't a problem. However, when I went to turn the water off, the huge showerhead on the ceiling started sprinkling cold water on me. I yelped in surprise, which of course everyone in the hotel room heard. Don't mind me, I don't know how to operate showers. I quickly got dressed so Tammy could hop in. I did give her instructions on the shower. We packed up and went down to the lobby at 10:15. The taxi was already there. The man was very nice. He was young and loaded up all six of our suitcases without complaint (Tammy's parents brought gifts for their relatives). After our crazy taxi ride, Tammy was worried about a repeat so she asked him if he would drive carefully. He was very thoughtful and asked her multiple times during the drive if she was scared. The taxi had two rows of seats facing each other. It had blue lights inside which were fun.
We made it to the airport in plenty of time. Here's the view from the airport:
They had separate entry doors for business class and economy, which was interesting because once you passed through initial security, you all ended up in the same place. The airport was huge! We went to the bathroom and right near the bathroom, there was a Turkish Airlines office with glass windows. On each side of the door was a chair facing the window. Behind the chair was a red backdrop that said "Denied Boarding." It looked like they would put you on display if you were denied boarding! I really wanted to take a picture but didn't want to draw attention to us.
We tried to check in at the kiosk, but it told us to see an agent. We did and a lady was able to help us get checked in. My suitcase weighed 19kg or around 42 pounds. For this flight, that's no problem. We are also allowed a personal item and a carry-on item for this flight. However, I am not going to be able to fit all the items from my carry-on (small duffel) into my suitcase when we fly within Africa. I will use up some items by then but not enough!
We went through security and passport control. They only announce your gate two hours before your flight so we walked around until we found a place to sit. The Istanbul Airport is like a super fancy mall.
Tammy started sending me pictures and I connected to wifi and sent some to her. When it was time, we walked about 15-20 minutes to our gate. It was not fun with a small duffel bag and a heavy backpack. When we made it to our gate waiting area, we found two open lounge chairs. We filled our water bottles and played Carioca Rummy. It's been so long we couldn't even remember all the rules!
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