Views, Towers and Cabs

Views, Towers and Cabs

Mummy in Archeological Museum 

Today we have planned to take  a boat cruise down the Bosphorous to a fishing village.  Unfortunately we have to move out of our sweet apartment because others had rented and paid for this place months ago. Luckily John has found on the web another apartment that is only 2 blocks away so we should have time to check in and make our 1:30 boat cruise time. We are told our next apartment has a great view but we must hike up 5 floors to get there.  Sounds enticing… we pack up and despite the proximity of the new accommodations John recommends we take a cab because these brick, stone roads are deadly to pull his luggage along… seems the wheels on his suitcase swirl sideways crashing his case.  So we hail a cab .... something we should have learned by now is not wise but we seem to need many learning trials. Thirty minutes later we are still driving in circles down narrow steep roads that are usually one-way in the wrong direction. Seth is sitting up front with his phone which has a navigational map trying to tell the driver where to go.  Of course, the driver doesn’t speak English and has never heard of the street or the apartment we are going to. Of course, the navigational map is incorrect and doesn’t have all these little alleys marked nor does it have Siri speaking to you. We sit waiting behind garbage trucks and other lorries delivering grocery goods to stores.. trying to figure out where we are going. Seth keeps telling us we are going in the wrong direction. Several times the cab driver turns around taking us down one-way streets in the wrong direction.  Finally, we all agree we need to bail and start walking although we are now further away then when we started. Getting out of the cab we have a moment of relief until we try to hike up these hilly streets with backpacks and suitcases, a large backgammon board, groceries and John’s suitcase. John decides he needs a coffee...

 Seth and I leave John at a coffee shop and forge ahead in the search for our new apartment. Seth has his suitcase, backpack and the groceries. I am wearing my backpack and pulling both my suitcase (which does have good wheels and works well on stone roads) as well as John’s suitcase and my  large camera bag. Little did I realize how difficult John’s suitcase was on rough roads… I trudge along mostly dragging his suitcase, barely missing cars and imagining I am climbing a mountain and need this exercise. Seth finally suggests he leave me along with all the luggage and backpacks on the side of the road while he tries to find the apartment. He is gone for 15+ minutes and during that time several very large trucks try to turn exactly where I am standing. I eventually push the entire luggage under a parked car thinking that at least it won’t be run over while the truck narrowly makes its way around the corner.  Yikes.. is Seth lost? am I lost? Eventually he comes back to confess he has found the meeting place which is very close to where we started.  We hike onward to an apartment door, which is locked. A man comes to meet us and asks Seth if he is John. He says the person who was supposed to meet us has left because we were late. Moreover, he cannot let us in our apartment because it is being cleaned. He suggests coming back in an hour! We won’t make our boat departure.  After some negotiation he agrees we wait 30 minutes and offers to take care of our luggage ~ which is on the sidewalk. Seth is a trusting soul while I think we are about to be robbed? I take my backpack that has my computer in it, thinking if I lose everything at least I will have my computer and passport!

Back to John who has had a double espresso and I find I am in luck because they have decaffeinated cappuccino. I think the day is improving!  We return to the place where we left our luggage which is now gone and the same man turns up. Hurrah.. he takes us to another place where we hike up 79 stairs to our apartment. We open the door and WOW it has an amazing view of the Bosphorous, bridges and the mosques we have been visiting.  Our luggage has also been transported here. I should be more trusting.

After unpacking we take the tram back to the Old Market ~ I am looking for tiles and John wants to look at kilims.  As soon as we arrive the merchants seem to know John is looking for a rug. They have just the perfect rug for him, special price and have lived in America so they tell him he is part of their family.  These men are definitely the most aggressive of all merchants in this market. We are looking for a special rug store described in Rick Steve’s book as having non-aggressive merchants who will teach you about rugs. Seth and I take off leaving John with the lovely carpet merchant recommended in the book.  We wander about for half an hour and go back to pick up John who has rugs spread out on the floor. He asks if I like one of them but is uncertain about the color and size. I’m not sure I am up for this purchase as returns would be very difficult, let alone how would we take this home. We decide our bazaar energy is diminished and head back to enjoy our new apartment view.

John goes straight home while Seth and I research the boat trip possibilities and schedules for the next day. We return via the upper bridge and I watch and chat with some fishermen. They look so relaxed, unpressured by the city and tourists and at ease chatting with each other… one would say they have captured the essence of “mindfulness” or “being in the moment”. 

Seth and I decide to climb the Galata Tower which is not far from our place. This tower was built in 528 during the sovereignty of the Byzantine Emperor. It is 61 meters high and according to our book has a fantastic view of the Bosphorus and roof tops from the European to Asian side.  We have to wait for 45 minutes to go up but the view is definitely as described… well maybe it is only a slightly better view than our apartment view which has the advantage of a cold drink, Turkish delight and not so many tourists pushing each other along the narrow edge and yelling at each other to stop taking so long to take a picture. We head back to try to return to the peaceful moment.