FINALLY REUNITED
…Istanbul
18th June - 22nd June | 2023
I took it easy in the morning as it is only a short ride into Istanbul, where I will meet up with Baran. Thanks to social media he helped me to find a workshop for my 10k service and new knobby tires. Also offered he for me to stay the night at his place, which was very nice of him. He lives at the Western entry of Istanbul, so I only got a vague idea about the famous Istanbul traffic on the last 3km to his place. It is a bit maniac as everybody is fighting for every inch, and watch out for scooters (remember "MSD = Mad Scooter Driver" in Italy, here you got the same!) and mini-buses.
Baran and I got carried away chatting about motorcycles the whole afternoon and suddenly it was already evening - time flies ;-)
The next morning he guided me to the workshop just 10mins down the road and then he went for a business meeting. As the servicing will take some hours, I went across the road into a nice cafe shop in a park to have my breakfast. After that, I sat in the workshop getting along with my blog. Unfortunately, they couldn't do the front tire as they didn't have the balancing weights anymore, so we agreed that I will pass by on Friday on my way out of Istanbul. That would mean though that it is going all the way back to the Western end of Istanbul to come back to get the ferry to Yalova to get into the direction of Pamakkule.
Once the bike was done, Baran also was finished with his meeting, I went back with him to load my bike. It was time to get to the hotel "Otentik Guesthouse" (google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/QFRXm8PUVPwTuNga9) in the centre of Istanbul, called Sultanahmed. It is only 35km, but it took me over 1 hour due to traffic jams, especially on the last 4 km. On the last 500m to the hotel, another complete standstill, I suddenly saw James appearing in my mirror. What a timing! You couldn't time that better on his 6 days travelling and 3000km :-D !!!
Once the bikes were parked we finally could give us a massive hug, to the surprise of the Turkish guards of the parking lot. Well, difficult to explain to them the story as we arrived together and they don't speak any English. The room was mainly taken over by my luggage as I had to sort out things and get stuff send back home as I haven't used it in 3 months and it doesn't look like I will need it. After a shower, as it was another hot day, we went to a restaurant nearby to get some dinner and a beer :-D
The next day, we took it easy and walked towards the centre. For those who have never been to Istanbul, it is very hilly and called the "City of seven hills"! It is not far from our hotel to the centre, but we have to climb a serious hill. Up there we visited a Mosque and got into the first stupid tourist trap. When we came out, I ended up talking to a Turkish guy as he checked my dress code when we walked into the mosque. He gave us some feedback and then guided us to the Big Bazaar, chatting with us. I already was expecting that he would take us to a certain shop in the Big Bazaar, which he did. It was a tea shop, and as we both like tea, we bought some (overpriced) tea. Then he continued walking with us out of the Big Bazaar and asked for some money. I hardly had any money on me and James also did not much small notes. We gave him some, but I guess he was expecting more of the "rich tourists". Lesson learned on both sides ;-)
In the afternoon we went through our area towards the sea. There were still a lot of old houses, and some of them were really nicely restored. At the seafront, we walked all the way along until Galata Bridge and then through the Egyptian Bazaar (Spices Bazaar) towards Ayasofya Camii and Sultanahmed Camii. As late, we were lucky as there were no more queues. We visited both and enjoyed the architecture. Then we strolled back through all these side streets down the hill to our hotel area, where we found another restaurant where we had our dinner. I cannot really recommend both places, as very touristic, but they serve at least beer ;-)
The next morning we took it very easy, as I needed to catch up on some computer work (e.g. blog, posts, data backup). Around late lunchtime we finally climbed up the hill to the centre, today's direction is Galata Tower and the famous shopping street Istiklal Street until Taksim Square. Just after the Galata Bridge, before we had to "climb up" to Galata Tower, we got into the next tourist trap without even knowing it! A shoe-cleaning guy walking in front of us lost one of his shoe brushes, so James naturally picked it up and gave it to him. The next thing I saw was James getting his trainers cleaned - we both saw it coming! And once he finished cleaning the trainers he asked for money! Not with us! Got a bit of a loud discussion while we just walked away - lesson learned, on both sides ;-) So, next time we will just ignore people losing their "working tools" as they are grateful in the totally wrong way!
On the way up to Galata, we found a very nice café, which even had the Turkish version of the German Cheesecake - very delicious!! After that "break" we walked all the way to Taksim Square and then back to Galata Bridge, back to our hotel. We tried to get into "Yebatan Sarnici" (Zystern) and got nearly ripped off. As we arrived there shortly before they close for the evening break (for some reason the visiting time between 20h00 - 22h00 costs TL200 more). A guide offered to take us on his group tour. When I asked him for the price as I had in mind TL350 he said TL200. That made me already a bit wondering, but being in a group it could be possible due to group prices. After we passed the security he told us we have to pay the entrance fee of TL350, and the TL200 were just for him. Sorry mate, but not with us! So we left!
We then went to the hotel and had some dinner on the way home at a nice restaurant close by, still for tourists as you could get beer, but much nicer than the ones before. Once we were back at the hotel, it didn't take us long to crash into our bed as it was the second day we did over 20ooo steps, which was nearly 20km/day!!! So you can imagine that we slept like a log!
I noticed two differences from my previous visit to Istanbul, about 10 years ago with my mum. It is much busier and much more people queuing up to get into the mosques, but we were in February, so maybe it was much quieter then. However, we were by then so impressed by the Muezzin prayer calls as it was like a conversation over the hills of Istanbul - it was really loud, you couldn't miss it. It was really impressive! Now you hardly can hear the Muezzin calling around Istanbul. The hotel owner explained that they turned the loudspeaker in and it is now only one Mosque doing the prayer call. What a pity as that was really amazing listening to them from all over the city! OK, I am not missing the one early in the morning though ;-)
On the 3rd day, we took it easy and went to the Süleymaniye Camii (Suleymaniye Mosque), where you also have a lovely view over the Golden Horn. In the evening I had booked a Sunset Cruise over the Bosporus. To get there we needed to go by tram to the ferry port in Kabatas. The first obstacle was getting the tram tickets as there was no explanation of how much we needed to pay or what we needed to buy, even though it was a basic English translation option. We stopped someone passing by and he tried to help, but he normally buys his tickets via an app. We bought some tickets, which are like a top-up card, and topped it directly up. What we didn't know, we topped it up with far too much money. A bit of better explanation would be helpful ...
The Sunset Cruise on the Bosporus I booked through the app "GetyourGuide". I have used it already on trips with my mum. Also this time it was a very good experience as all went smoothly once we arrived at the meeting point. The cruise was very nice and our tour guide explained all very well. On the tour was also a welcome drink and some snacks included. Towards the end, it was a really nice sunset atmosphere over the centre of Istanbul with all the Mosques and hills. What a nice finish to our stay in Istanbul. Tomorrow we will head out, finally onto the Asian side, into the unknown! While you wait for the next blog, enjoy an ice cold beer.
Places | Cities:
Istanbul
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 9145 km
Information Border Crossings (in June 2023):
IMPORTANT:
James in 06/2023
Passport, bike documents, insurance papers/green card AND Portuguese residency document.
Maintenance | Breakdown:
Still searching for the fault in the ABS connection.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
Otentik Hotel/guesthouse (google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/UvJVfrWMCMKJdc5p6) for being so welcoming and helpful.
Baran for all his help and letting me stay at his place.
MotoProf for looking after Schimmelchen (IG: motoprof34)