Taksim and Beyoglu

We relaxed thi morning, got caught up on housekeeping. Pictures, and emailing, and headed off by bus to Taksim; on the bus, we met a women who grew up in New Jersey. She was in Istanbul for a year, tryin to set up a business, arranging for students to come to the states for 3 months and learn Englsh. She did not seem to like Istnbul much and wished she were back in the States. The bus was very crowded and we had to wait quite a while because most of them go to Kabatas. We packed ourselves in, like sardines, hung on and were in Taksim in about 15 minutes. The square, of course is unrecognizable, much larger than I remember, the streets go in all directions, and I was not even sure I was on Cumhurriet until I saw the Hilton. They have closed off many of the streets around the square, making it a walkers paradise. Thus, we are sitting at a café, having tea, and kaymakli baklava. The square is filled with tea houses, hawkers, and various other stalls, as it’s still the center of the city. Evie took a picture of the patissserie, as the delights look eatingly, a new word. It seems so strange to walk around in a city you once new so well, on streets you walked hundreds of times, and now feel lost. I am not even sure where Istiklal caddesi begins. It is so nice to be able to sit down, relax with a tea when pooped, and then move on and explore. We ate our baklava at Muhammed Said’s Baklavaci. We have walked down almost to the end of Istiklal Caddesi, the main shopping street in the Galata side of Istanbul. They have turned, what was a street when I was here, into a walking mall, filled with shops of all prices on either side, large small, retail, restaurant, chai house, you name it, they have it. We stopped in a posh store called Mavi, then Bun Design, and ending eating just next to the British consulate at a pide/kebab place. It was kind of neat because, sitting next to us, was an official from the consulate, so we ended up eating and talking with him. He has been here for a year, resides in Tarabya, and ran their last evening, from his office, taking little of two hours, he said. On the 18th of October, there will be a run across the Bosphorus Bridge, or you can walk the 8km fun run, starting at 9:30. We ended up winding our way down to a café, right neat the Galata Tower, just off of what I will call Musical Instrument street, shops all selling things having to do with intstruments. At Paschabachi (famous glass) we were looking at evil eyes in various forms. An elderly gentleman asked me if I knew what they symbolized and told him yes. He said he didn’t believe in them (in somewhat broken English) and that all people are basically good unless they prove otherwise. He thought that displaying the evil eye outside your home was displaying distrust in other people. As I sat here writing, I just realized the Galata Tower is rising up behind us. I guess I must have missed it, sitting down. It is fun just sitting here watching the people go by, trying to figure out what their nationality is, what their relationship is to each other. It’s so nice to be able to sit down, have a tea, write a bit, talk, then be on our way. What a city Istanbul has become, great for the locals, great for tourists. We continued our walk down to Kadikoy, next to the Galata Bridge, hoping to get a ferry boat back to the village. No luck, so we had to take a bus to Ortakoy, another one to Kurucesme. We met a guy who worked in the state for an 800 number company; he says he remembers USA-800. After 9/11, all the call centers went to India so he is back in Istanbul teaching English, a good guy and left us his card. We stopped at Migros, got the ingredients for Hasan’s pasta, stopped at a café just beyond the RC gate, and had a beer for 8 liras, about eight dollars. It was not worth it. We had a great dinner, watch CNN and Evie worked on pictures.