Day 98

Saturday April 26th

For our third day in Istanbul, we followed what had now become our routine for exploring a city. We would find something that looked vaguely interesting in the guide book and then walk there. Today this meant we wandered over from the old city to Istiklal Ave in the northern European part of the city. We could have taken the tram system, but naturally we opted to walk there instead. This first site we came to was the Galata Tower. This famous medieval tower is all that remains from a Genoese Fortress that occupied the spot in the 14th century. This tower supposedly has great views, but because of the rainy weather and the 10 lira charge to go to the top, we voted to just continue the walking tour of Istiklal ave. Istiklal ave, I felt, was the place to see and be seen. It is this crowded pedestrian only street that features tons of shops, bakeries, clubs and cafes. It is 3 km long and stretches to Taskim square, the equivalent of Midan Tahrir for Istanbul. However, this square is much less organized and the traffic obeyed the stop-lights. We didn't really stop anywhere, other than a couple of churches, a cafe for coffee and a resturant for lunch during our travels to Taskim square. From Taskim square we then marched east towards the Bosporus to check out the baroque palace Dolmabahce Palace. This palace is apparently supposed to be quite amazing on the inside as it features the world's largest bohemian chandelier. However, the high entrance fee, plus the fact that we would have to go with a group of 35 on a guided tour made us again opt out. However, we did want to try and make it to Asia so we walked towards the closet port only to find that it was closed for the weekend. Thus we were forced to start the long trek back to the hostel. Now I have no qualms walking through a city and not paying for a cab. But the girls were tired, so they got a cab. The guys and me walked until we found the tram station and then rode that back for about a dollar. At this point we were quite tired and decided to rest before dinner and had a pretty low-key night.