Oct 28 – Istanbul, Turkey

Weather – 15º, cloudy with some misty

urbanization of Istanbul

rain

Steps – 13,447

I am thrilled to be in Istanbul today! Istanbul is definitely the highlight of this cruise. Overnights are rare on cruises and initially, we were to over night here. It would have been fantastic, to be out and about in Istanbul at night, but tomorrow is a Republic Day in Turkey, so not a great day to be a tourist. I completely get it, but I find it odd that Regent couldn’t have known this when the itinerary was set years ago. By the time we had booked the cruise, the itinerary was already changed, so we weren’t disappointed.

yogurt snack with sugar pack

It was exciting and a bit emotional as we sailed in past Turkish flags, mosques, the Blue Mosque, Dolmabahçe Palace, Galata Tower – all this was just from the sail in! 

Blue Mosque during sail in

Old Neighborhoods of Istanbul is the title of the tour we selected for today. Having been in Istanbul a few times before, we’ve visited the main sights – today is a chance to venture off the beaten path a bit.

The tour is one of Regent’s additional cost tours, today we were with a group of 6 other people, and this is enough of a reason to feel the extra cost is worth it. The extra cost excursion in Dubrovnik was normal size, so we didn’t think the extra cost there was worth it – it was just regular quality and size.

Dolmabahçe Palace

Being such a small group, we were on a small van – capacity 14.

börek 

On the way to the Asian side of Istanbul, where all of the tour took place, Irem told us info about Turkey and Istanbul. One interesting bit is that the official population of Istanbul according to the interwebs is 15 million, but she puts it at closer to 30 mil. The Turkish government no longer conducts a census. The entire country of Turkey is about 86 million, so about a third lives in Istanbul.

All of the 3 stops on the tour were on the Asian side of Istanbul. Each time we stopped we followed our guide, Irem, as she led us along narrow streets that were both residential and commercial.

We also were able to sample Turkish foods ‘Midye Dolma’ – a mussel shell stuffed with the mussel and rice, drizzled with lemon juice, about $1CAD each.

sail in

This was very, very tasty! We got the sample from a street vendor/fast-food spot where Irem happened to stop, I’m not sure it was on her official itinerary, but I’m glad she stopped!

mosque

Another thing we tasted was Turkish coffee (or tea was an option). Tea in Turkey seems much more ubiquitous, but I wanted to try the coffee. I’ve had Turkish coffee in Calgary and here is the same…small cup of unfiltered, sludge-y coffee, you drink down to the sludge. The sludge can be used to tell fortunes.

old Istanbul houses

The coffee/tea accompanied börek – a pastry made from think flaky dough like filo. We had 3 types – one with feta cheese and walnuts, one with ground beef and another with just cheese – all very delicious.

The last neighborhood we visited was called Kanlica – here we sampled its famous yogurt – delicious, but basically plain yogurt that Turkish people
mix with powdered sugar.

Each time we stopped we saw a slice of life on the Asian side of Istanbul – shopping (we saw a market with the biggest cabbages, at least 2x the size we are used to, and leeks, well over a meter long, in the history of the world!) going to school, working, and basically with few tourists. There were tourists for sure, but we were no where near the big sights of Istanbul.

Midye Dolma stuffed mussel

HUGE cabbages

Very much like Montenegro, there were cats everywhere. As Irem told us, there used to be leather factories that were shut down, in these factories were cats to control mice and rats. When the factories were shut down the cats were sent to the streets. Now Istanbul residents and business owner/staff feed these cats.

After the tour we walked to the Beşiktaş soccer stadium, about a 1.5km from the port. We visited the stadium on a previous visit and wanted to do some shopping – we both got a t-shirt.

Beşiktaş soccer stadium

On the way back we stumbled upon some street art – 2 faces of a building covered with empty window frames. These window frames represented the urbanization of Istanbul – not sure the Uber Eats bike belonged, but it seemed appropriate.

mosque

We stopped for a beer ($12CAD) in the port area, not exactly cheap, but in the new port, on the water, right near the cruise ship’s gonna cost ya! The port area is incredible! When we first visited Istanbul for a cruise in 2008, the cruise terminal was a

Turkish flags everywhere for tomorrow 

warehouse. Now the Galata Port terminal is very high tech, maybe the most advanced cruise ship terminal in the world. It is the world's first underground cruise terminal, which uses a hatch system to keep customs and security zones separated while the waterfront can be accessed by non-cruise passengers. Ther terminal has many bars, restaurants, and shops. The busses and vans pick up and drop passengers off underground. It is something!

beer, the ship, and the port

There was security just to get into the mall – not ship or port security, but mall security – the usual, metal detector, bag x-ray situation. The 250 shops (many we were familiar with) and restaurants were thronging with people – local people. I suppose in a city of 30 million enough residents will want to hang out at the port.