Day 19-21: Home via Instabul
When we were in Istanbul 30 years ago we stayed in what was surely the biggest shithole in the city. I remember covering the pillow with my travel towel, crawling inside my sleeping bag and making sure no part if me touched any part of the bed. The toilet I can’t even talk about! This time around we decided to go BIG and our room was everything that wasn’t and more – I thought I may never leave, but the Bosphorus beckoned. We agreed no museums this time (just a visit to the Hagia Sofia), then onto the waterways and into the alleyways…
Our wanderings uncovered a city that has come so far in the last 30 years as to be almost unrecognizable. What used to be mainly carpet sellers, leather jacket shops & cheap knock offs, very persistently pedalled by desperate vendors, has blossomed into a burgeoning, modern economy with every imaginable commodity (of good quality) for sale by shop-keepers, enthusiastic & persuasive for sure, but far less pushy.
The old beat-up white mini bus taxis (Dolmus), have been replaced by neat yellow vans and an extensive, affordable public transport network operates like clockwork – Trams, Metro, Dolmus, Taxis & Ferries are on the go day & night, moving bodies every which way. The streets are clean. We saw no beggars – I assume they must be somewhere? Surely not all adults in this city of 15 000 000 inhabitants are employed?
There is food everywhere you turn – street vendors abound & restaurants line the roads and waterways. Delicious smells fill the air. Shop windows offer a visual feast of baklava, candies, cakes, ice cream, fruit, breads and of course, the wonderful Turkish Delight in every imaginable colour & flavour! Who eats all this food? Do they replace these mountains of Baklava daily? The scale of everything blows me away! It brings to mind an army of silkworms steadily munching their way through mounds and mounds of foliage…
I recall an undue fascination with my blond hair all those years ago and an intense curiosity about Steve (whom they assumed was Turkish) and me being together. Tourism was in its infancy, we attracted much unwelcome male attention and there were hardly any women out & about. All that has changed. The people are clearly accustomed to tourists now and the general attitude is far more relaxed & tolerant. Ladies in head scarves chat amicably with others sporting long hair & shorts and men & women stroll comfortably hand-in-hand.
And then you get the many women in burkas – such a stark contrast to the new openness. I watched, bemused, at breakfast, as one woman lifted her veil haltingly to place food in her mouth and took small sips under cover. I felt my ire rising. What is it all about? How can the husbands sit there comfortably and openly while their wives are so ludicrously covered up? How do the women feel about it? Surely they can’t be comfortable, especially in this heat wave? Why don’t they speak up and demand their freedom? I wished I could chat to her and get her honest perspective on it all…
On the flight from Tbilisi, we regretted our decision to spend 2 nights in Istanbul and wished we were going straight through to CT. We were feeling travel weary and at that juncture, the thought of clearing customs and schlepping our bike boxes into & out of taxis was not appealing. However, we were thrilled to find a storage facility at the airport, which cost R1000 for our 2 bikes for 3 days – SO worth it! That freed us up to simply hop on the Metro with our small wheeled suitcases and whizz through to the hotel unencumbered and we were SO glad that we did!!
An important lesson to remember about travel – you have to grin & bear the schlepp with as much patience and humour as possible to reap the rewards of the adventure that follows…
