I was in Istanbul about 2 years ago. I’d just finished another Dan Brown book, Inferno, and for the 4th time in a row, I was about to unknowingly visit the city where another one of Brown’s books end! If you haven’t read Inferno, it’s a great prelude to Istanbul. I dragged my boyfriend at the time to every location in the book. The good part is, the boyfriend is now my husband and we’ve already seen a fair share of the city!
We started the cruise in Istanbul, and would return again on the boat in about a week. For a quick overnight stop before getting on boat, we stayed Four Seasons Hotel on the Bosphorus.
Starving after almost 4 hour flight from London, and getting in late due to some crazy traffic from the airport. (Note: I may be on vacation, but the rest of the world isn’t. Don’t book a flight that puts you smack dab in the middle of rush hour, especially in a city with horrible traffic to begin with.)
There is so much to do in this city, but we were spent. We decided to just have a shower and have dinner at the hotel. Aqua is a beautiful restaurant right at the Four Seasons. Even though it was chilly, we couldn’t pass up the chance to sit on the Bosphoros and enjoy the evening.
0
0
0
The next afternoon it was time to set sail. Won’t be back in Turkey until we arrive in Izmir 6 days later.
IZMIR, TURKEY
First stop in Izmir, a busy bazaar full of locals. Like Savi and Vid of Bruised Passports, I love finding my own gems. And in this bazaar, I found plenty of gems!
Turkey is known as the birthplace for shopping. Whether you call it a mall, market, souk or here the famous bazaars, you can find anything and everything in these shopping areas. Izmir had numerous bazaars that easily rival the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
If you make it to Turkey, it’s a right of passage to visit a bazaar. Let it be known beforehand, it is standard for westerners to feel overwhelmed, as its a cultural norm in these bazaars to approach you as you walk by. It’s a bit much. Okay it’s over-the-top, but I got used to it.
Bring cash and be prepared to negotiate for the best deals. Everything here is negotiable!
We travel so often, I get bored of planned tours just showing you the surface of a city. So today, with my SAY HI translator app and a surprisingly cheap data package, we hailed a taxi and had the driver take us around. I love seeing a city from the locals’ point of view.
0
0
Lunch time, and our local taxi driver took us to Asansor. The sweet guy, I think, wanted to take us somewhere that tourists go, and I didn’t mind. The view was spectacular from the top of this tower built into the side of a cliff originally in 1907. Thankfully, the tower has had a recent overhaul and the new elevators didn’t cause any panic. The food did come second to the beautiful view of Izmir.
Close to the restaurant was Mosquee Blue. I asked the driver if we could go in, he parked the car and walked us around beautiful blue tiled structure but we chose not to enter as there was something going on inside.
Another popular attraction is the Clock Tower square. Kind of reminded me of St. Mark’s Square in Venice. At least- all the pigeons did! We walked all the way around the square, and didn’t get pooped on. There was another very busy bazaar behind this square, but I was bazaar’ed out and this one was wall-to-wall people so we passed and headed to the boardwalk.
We were getting short on time, one of the disadvantages to being on a cruise, you have to abide by their schedule. Izmir has a beautiful boardwalk called Kordonboyu. This is where we said goodbye to our nice taxi driver, one of the best guides so far on the trip, and walked along the busy coast back to the port.
I could of spent all day walking around this area. Filled to the rim with bars, restaurants and shops. Great place to hang out, but it was time to leave.
Turkey will be continued…