It was another very hot day. With my computer back I did a bit of work and caught up on some accounting etc which had been waiting for its return. There are still a few fiddly problems with it: the fingerprint reader no longer seems to work, and some programs – specifically, I think, those that are a shell for a web application – don’t open. But I’m too grateful for the rest to care.
In the evening the GF emerged from his work and suggested we go for an evening stroll, since afternoons are so hot. So we did: we walked across Galata and down the hill via a route we don’t take that often and which is lined with flowering oleander trees peeping over stone walls. We crossed the Golden Horn using the footbridge attached to the metro bridge, and then climbed up a secret way the GF discovered towards the Sulemaniye Mosque. I was feeling a little on edge, both grumpy and uncertain, and the GF had the excellent idea that we stop for a coffee at a rickety cafe we’d passed before, perched on a steep hillside and overlooking the Horn. This was an excellent idea, a kind of reset, and the view was very pleasing indeed, from the Galata Tower across the water (and our new flat clearly visible), across to the Asian side where the Camlica Mosque squats on the hillside like an immense spider. It was late enough in the evening that it was starting to cool down – though still very hot – and the light was turning pink.
We walked on to the Sulemaniye Mosque with its airy terrace over the Horn and sweeping views across the city (including of our living room windows). Then we walked down, a fairly direct way to the Galata Bridge, collected a Basque cheesecake to have with a sour cherry compote I’d made the previous day, and back. A pleasant stroll, and refreshing to the mind.