After the drama of yesterday, today we decided on a quiet day’s exploration. So we took the tram to the other side of the Golden Horn, past Aksaray, to areas new. This is a very Syrian part of town and I’d heard of a fine Syrian restaurant there; from there it was only about 20 […]
Waiting, waiting
Still waiting for our appointment at the deed office. Now it’s likely to be on Friday as tomorrow, Thursday, is Republic Day. There is what appears to be a grey battleship moored outside, and lots of shouting and martial singing on loudspeakers. Hopefully this is for Republic Day, not an invasion. We killed a few […]
Craving unsatisfied
This morning I woke up craving desi food and did some diligent research to find a place in Fatih, across the Golden Horn: a small Indian place run by an Indian couple. A bit of a dhaba, so less likely to water food down to Turkish tastes. So we took the tram over to a […]
Connecting paths
I finished up my work this morning and by that time the GF was awake and had finished his rather long morning rituals, so we left, planning to go to the farmer’s market. We hadn’t made it more than a few steps, though before we decided not to bother: the kitchen in this flat is […]
Wet and windy
But not cold. This afternoon we had a late start and I was nearly perishing of hunger as I had breakfast at my usual sort of time, around 8 or 9, and we didn’t leave until around 2 for lunch. We walked to Karakoy and took the ferry to Kadikoy, where we went through the […]
On a cliff edge
We are now very close indeed to final agreement on the small Galata flat. I’m still not entirely happy with it, but it is the sensible choice and hopefully we will rent it out most of the time anyway instead of having to live in it. Two of our visitors – the ones staying in […]
Back to Bebek
We went back to Bebek for brunch this morning, as one of the visitors really wanted to go. It was disappointing, I must say: overpriced and not great, and even the view was a bit whatever, though admittedly I am spoiled. After brunch we strolled along the sea for a bit and even though it […]
Witches of Scutari
We took our second trip to Asia, this time by walking along the coast (a bit inland to avoid the dust and traffic) to Kabataş, through quiet streets lined with little old blocks of flats and past the place we are moving to next week. It’s a far more residential bit than the beautiful Galata […]
Aptly named
Since the GF and I went our separate ways for lunch I took the opportunity to try what is supposed to be one of the best purveyors of kokoreç, a Greek/ Turkish/ Balkan speciality of grilled lamb intestines stuffed with sweetbreads here, in Turkey, usually eaten as a sandwich. it is rather well-named since the […]
Uphill
It was a quiet Sunday: we walked down to Taksim Square (stopping for a kibbeh for me along the way), and then onward to take the cable car to Nisantasi. This turned out to be unexpectedly enjoyable, as the cable car was just two capsules each way, and went over the park, over ruined walls […]