Looking for Maps...

Trip Start Aug 11, 2007
1
24
68
Trip End Nov 08, 2007


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Turkey  ,
Sunday, September 9, 2007

A slow start, then off to Taksim, which has a much better selection of bookshops, to look for the maps. Hakan had told us what to look for - made in Germany with good details of all the country roads (most of the maps you can find have only major roads). We invited Michal, a nice American lady who was staying at Apricot by herself, to come with us. Arrived over in Taksim about 11am, to find that lots of the shops weren't opening until 1pm - still heaps of people around, and more arrived the later it got. Couldn't find the maps we were looking for, so bought the best ones we could see - they aren't too bad, but don't have any detail of the cities, which is a bit of a pain.

Found there was an excellent bus connection to another out of the way part of the city where there is a beautiful old Byzantine church (then a mosque, now maintained as a museum), with some of the most intact mosaics still able to be seen - Chora Church or Kariye Muzesi - so the three of us headed over there Family selling wool for matress stuffing
Family selling wool for matress stuffing
 . And it was beautiful, and a bit less touristy than many other of Istanbul's attractions, because it is a bit more difficult to get there.

Took the slow way back to the hotel, via a local eatery. This is a very non-tourist area - most tourists arrive on chartered tours or taxis and leave again as soon as they finish seeing the church - appears to be a middle class area, so interesting looking in the shops and seeing what the locals buy (lots of pavalova wedding dresses!).

Arrived back about 4 pm and then spent hours in the lobby with Hakan who very patiently went through our likely driving itinerary and talked to us about the sights, drew up maps of the ruin areas, told us about good places to go (and ones to avoid) and gave us the benefit of his years of experience. It was great! About 9 pm we were all getting hungry, so Mehmet went and prepared a light dinner for the 4 of us and we took a break from tour planning (and hotel managing) and sat outside at the little tables, with the fairy lights on in the trees and the music playing from the restaurant up the road, eating our last dinner in Istanbul and chatting to two guys who have made the start of our trip so enjoyable!
Slideshow Print this entry Istanbul hotels