A really epic day. When the GF rose we had a quick lunch and then walked down to the pier to take the ferry to Uskudar, from where to take the metro over to Ikea. Only to find that the ferries were not running due to races, so the only part of the day we had looked forward to was now cancelled.
Instead we walked over to Sirkeci and took the terrifying Marmaray line to Uskudar. Terrifying because it goes under the Bosphorus and it would be quite terrible to be under the water when the big one hits Istanbul. Anyway, it didn’t this time, although the train was a bit crowded. We switched over to the one to Umraniye where Ikea is located, and this was much quieter. From there it was a surprisingly pleasant 15 minute walk to Ikea, down a couple of big roads but not the motorway kind, and then through a sort of mini funfair with children operating large-fisted mechas which, unfortunately, seemed designed to be unable to punch.
In Ikea we picked our sofa, then went to the kitchen bit where we found a genuinely helpful person, very unlike our last visit. So that was nice. But she was not available till later, till three or four hours later to be precise, so here we were in this giant strip mall at least till around 8.
We went through Ikea in a rush, thinking we’d be back soon enough, and out to where we found a branch of a good cafe. This was somewhat restorative, and then it occurred to us that a strip mall like this was sure to have a place to buy white goods. Indeed, we found a Bosch store and are now the proud owners of our first ever fully-owned fridge, dishwasher, oven, hob and extractor fan. A belated arrival to adulthood and a rather bumpy one too.
Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we went back to Ikea to the kitchen section, there to find the woman waiting with a carefully written out English text that we could not order our kitchen as the measurements had to be redone – our fault, I should say. Fortunately she was able to arrange it for next week but in any case we shan’t have a kitchen when we move in because it turns out that the installation won’t be for at least a couple of months anyway. At this we nearly wept. But there is not much to be done.
We went through Ikea and bought a few more bits and pieces, then finally got into the warehousy bit where we attained another milestone of adulthood by purchasing a flatpack sofa. However, by this time we were so fed up that we agreed to a small shakedown by a staff member and paid him to collect all the components. He must have thought we were soft touches indeed. And then we arranged for its delivery and assembly (actually assembling Ikea furniture is not something either of us wishes to contemplate) and then we found a taxi to take us back. We ordered food in, collapsed.