“Go to Galata Bridge,” the only instructions I had from my friend about where to find him in Istanbul. Fresh off the plane from Brussels I made my way to the line of taxis out in front of the airport in Istanbul. With this one line of instruction I feebly attempted to talk to my taxi driver…hoping that he might know Georgian or English…unfortunately he didn't but we did manage to communicate where I wanted to go after I had shown him this cryptic message. We took off into the darkness where I hoped Galata Bridge, where ever it was in Istanbul, laid. After 30 mins in the taxi and a 110.00 lira fare (all my Turkish money that I had pulled out at the time…roughly 50 USD) we made it to Galata Bridge.
Cold, confused, tired from a day’s worth of travel and weighed down with my luggage, I wandered along the water front looking for my friends. I was confronted by restaurant hosts who were offering me promises of authentic Turkish food and even an offer to be my friend for the night since my friends were nowhere to be found. I finally stumbled on a restaurant that allowed me to use their Wi-Fi so I could send out a Facebook message from my kindle…an SOS addressed to the other members of my travel group asking where they were and that I was lost and without any money. Hoping that they would magically decide to be online and check their Facebook account, I sat at the restaurant and awaited a response. About 40 mins later my friend Anthony replied asking where I was and then stating that he and my other friend Aaron were on their way to retrieve me.
My flight had been delayed and I had no way to let the other members of my party know that I would arrive late. During my delayed departure the rest of the group had manage to find each other, locate and check into our apartment that we had rented for the week, have a great Turkish dinner, and were currently watching the Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode of Istanbul’s cuisine when I was turning down friendly offers along the waterfront. About an hour and a half later after I had first heard back from Anthony, I decided to try and find them in one of the restaurants on the opposite side of the river. They were doing what I was doing and ducking into restaurants in order to use their Wi-Fi to contact me. By luck I passed them and Aaron’s big arm wave gestured me into the restaurant. We quickly had a beer to celebrate the reunion and headed to the apartment where the rest of our party awaited.
The next day I awoke to the call to prayer at 6am. The mesmerizing prayer echoed from the mosque and through our suburb of Fatih. We made breakfast and then we took off to explore the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, and the Hagia Sophia. I quickly found out that Istanbul is my spirit city with its beautiful use of colored tiles, Ottoman Empire architecture, spiced foods and friendly people. We hit the touristy sights hard that day knowing that New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day would be a bit slower. We returned to the apartment excitedly chatting about our favorite place we had seen that day.
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| The Grand Bazaar |
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| More of the Grand Bazaar |
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| Outside of the Blue Mosque |
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| Inside the Blue Mosque...it was so pretty! |
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| The ceiling above me in the previous picture |
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| The Hagia Sophia |
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| Window in the Hagia Sophia |
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| Inside the Hagia Sophia |
The next day, New Year’s Eve, we went out to wander aimlessly around the city with no agenda at all. I had so much street food that day: stomach sandwiches, lahmacun, doners, shawarma, spiced lamb, mussels with dirty rice and so much more.
We had a celebratory dinner and then made our way back to the apartment to get ready for the night’s festivities. Our kiwi friend Steve who we had previously met in Georgia before he had moved to Istanbul to become a full time teacher, drank so wine with use before escorting us to Taksim Square for the New Year’s Eve fireworks. We huddled together as a group staying warm and waited for the countdown to begin…though none of us knew Turkish numbers so we just waited until the crowd exploded with cheers. As soon as the countdown was over our group left the square as quickly as we could since there was rumored to be a political protest that night that if occurred would be accompanied by water cannons and tear gas. The fact that we saw a group of 20+ people wearing V for Vendetta masks and chanting didn't help the situation either. We made it back to the apartment safe and sound and played a few card games before going to bed .
Our third day there, New Year’s Day, was a recovery for most of us. We had been up pretty late the night before and had worn ourselves out pretty early in the week. We hung around the apartment for most of the day and went out for dinner at a nearby café.
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| Basilica Cistern |
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| New Year's Eve in Taksim Square |
Our last remaining days we toured the Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar again, and Beyoglu, the hipster side of town where our friend Steve lived. On our last night we went to a bar and toasted to our good fortune and to our amazing trip together. The next morning we got up early, did one last clean up around the apartment and then boarded the mega bus that would be our home for the next 24 hours as we traveled across Turkey and back into Georgia. Istanbul was amazing and I've already got plans to visit it again in my lifetime. Happy 2014!
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| The whole group in Taksim Square for the New Year's Celebrations |
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