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 wet market, very nice though crowded and starting to drizzle a little. Kadikoy has a very different feel from Beyoglu, much more local feeling. A shame the architecture isn’t as nice, though there were some pretty buildings scattered amidst the faceless plazas.
Lunch was at the much-renowned Ciya Sofrasi, which was really very good. Very home-made feeling. It reminded me a little of the lovely Tawlet in Beirut, though less stylish. I had a bowl of lamb’s head soup, which was a Turkish version of siri paye, though less oily and with fewer recognizable portions of the head bobbing in it (tongues etc) bobbing in it than in my grandmother’s version. Less delicate than Lahore style siri paye, and of course with different flavouring (lots of lemon and more chilli) but quite delicious.
When we emerged, I was revived like a potted plant in the shower. We had a cup of coffee and then it was raining so we decided to go back to the ferry walking along the sea. We never actually came to the sea as partway through the walk it started to rain, with gusty wind, and though it was not icy cold, it was not warm. We both had umbrellas but the GF’s had one broken spoke which I made worse by poking at it. We paused at a white goods shop, agreed that a narrow fridge would be just fine for our purposes, and a sandwich maker would be lovely but impractical, and led some of the water steam off us before venturing out again.
By the time we arrived at the ferry the rain had mostly stopped and sun was setting vividly pink and pale yellow over Europe. On the journey across the sky deepened in colour and the lights came on, all very beautiful despite the gloom and the wind and rain of earlier.
A swift return to Cihangir stopping only to buy some milk, and here I am – having realised on my return that I had some work to do that I had completely forgotten, so am now racing to finish it (whilst writing blog posts).