Wander More Work Less

This morning’s travel agenda was to visit the Basilica Cistern. It opened at 9 a.m., so we made sure we were in the pre-purchased ticket line by 8:45 a.m. There were only a handful of people in front of us, but many more in the queue to purchase tickets. We had seen that line four times longer yesterday afternoon. Info from Wikipedia: ( Wiki Link ) “ The enlarged cistern provided a water filtration system for the Great Palace of Constantinople and other buildings on the First Hill, and continued to provide water to the Topkapı Palace after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 and into modern times. The existence of the cistern was eventually forgotten by all but the locals who still drew water from it until, in 1565, the French traveller Petrus Gyllius left a record of it. Gyllius recorded being rowed between the columns and seeing fish swimming in the water beneath the boat. ” We descended a set of metal stairs into the bottom of the cistern. We expected it to be large—and it was—something li...

I did hear the 5:38 a.m. call today! But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t coming from right outside the window — it was from a mosque further away. Maybe the local one near us is enjoying a week of sleeping in? 😂 It was no trouble getting back to sleep afterward, so we both had a slightly later start — me getting up first and Sarah having a sleep-in. Because the weather is cooler now, there’s no need to go out quite so early unless we want to avoid crowds. Today we walked to Galata Tower, over near Beyoglu, setting off just before 9 a.m. The Google Maps route took us up past the Grand Bazaar again, but fortunately not through the centre of it. We enjoyed walking the busy — but not crazy busy — streets around the edge of the Bazaar. There were plenty of people keen for us to stop and buy something from them. We reached the edge of the river (or sea) and crossed over via the Galata Bridge, which took us to the Karaköy area. You can see the Galata Tower sticking up on the right hand side of thi...

We still didn't hear the early call! Strange. It's earlier here, though—5:38 am—so perhaps we were just fully asleep. 🤔 This morning, our plan was to get up and be at the Blue Mosque around 8:30 am when it opened. It was raining, which would have been annoying while wearing long trousers, but our apartment has umbrellas! So handy! I had my long trousers out, and Sarah had her scarf ready. Finding the actual entrance was harder than we expected—even with our prep last night. We got there, though probably not as efficiently as we might have liked. The line to get in was not too bad: dozens, not hundreds, of people. We took off our shoes at the entrance and placed them inside the provided plastic bag. You then leave the shoes and umbrellas on small wooden racks inside the mosque. The interior was all carpeted, which surprised me. I had expected the floor to be marble. There were also many cables hanging from the ceiling for lighting, which spoiled the view of the love...

Well, that's a bit weird. I forgot to mention yesterday that outside our apartment window is our neighbour: Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque. One of 3,267 such places. Yet we didn't hear the call to prayer before sunrise this morning. Did we sleep that soundly? I'll report back tomorrow. Still, it makes for a pretty unique view and a quieter start to the day. 😂 This morning we needed to head out and find breakfast as we hadn't been to a supermarket yet and didn't bring anything with us. We headed down our street and a little further to find a small breakfast café. A couple of small bread pretzel-like items, a coffee, and a tea for 210 Lira ($9 NZD). We sat and watched the world go by while enjoying our breakfast. After breakfast, we continued to explore the local area in a rough circular route. There were a mixture of very pretty and quite rough looking streets.  We eventually ended up at the Sultan Ahmet Park, which has t...

It’s a nice change to stay in a hotel room and be able to go down and enjoy a “free” breakfast. We were the only ones there at 8 a.m. A nice selection, but not many hot options. Three cups of coffee is a good way to start any day! ☕☕☕ The frustration and grumpiness paid dividends today. We had a short but very wet walk to the train station, 150m away. It was pouring with rain, and there had been lightning and thunder earlier. The tricky bit was crossing the traffic, but we managed to time that perfectly to minimize our time in the rain. Still, we got quite soaked without raincoats on. It wasn’t worth the hassle of getting them out and then packing them away again wet. We purchased the train tickets after once more checking with the attendant that the train actually stopped at the airport. We think he confirmed it did. The train was already at the platform, so we could board and sit in relative comfort—damp-feeling comfort. It was reassuring when the train left exactly on ti...

A very frustrating day — most of it our own (read my) fault! We left Ilica on the 9:05 a.m. bus to the İzmir Otogar main bus station. Easy and straightforward. We then took a few minutes longer than we would have liked to find the local public bus into the city centre. It wouldn’t have won us any Amazing Race legs, but we found it eventually. To be fair, the place was massive, with multiple levels. We hopped on the right bus and then discovered they didn’t take cash. I tried to swipe my Wise card at the reader, but it flashed a red error — twice! Lack of prep! İzmir has a public transport card system, like the Snapper card in Wellington, NZ. We (meaning me) had become too confident, assuming that with all the buses and dolmuşes we’d taken so far in Turkey being cash only —  that that would continue. Not in Izmir! You have to buy a card from a main station or agent and top it up. Never ASS-U-ME!  We were on the bus that was already moving and had gone three or four ...

There are no other local areas we need to explore, so we’re quite happy just hanging around the apartment. I’ve got the NRL Grand Final and the Singapore Grand Prix to watch. There’s also no need for a walk today — we could do with a rest. Maybe we’ll just wander along the seafront later before dinner. Before lunch, we popped down to the supermarket via the bus station. We’ve decided to catch an earlier bus tomorrow, so we needed to double-check the departure times. The NRL Final turned out to be a great result! I’ve always supported the Brisbane Broncos and, in recent years, developed a soft spot for the New Zealand Warriors as well. It’s been a few years (19) since the Broncos last won the competition, so it was fantastic to be sitting on the opposite side of the world watching them beat the Storm today! After the game, we went out to take a closer look at the local mosque. We’re so glad we did — it turned out to be stunningly beautiful, completely covered in colourful ceramic tiles....