Istanbul - waiting for Sandra

Date: June 20th to 22nd, 2023

This is now part 3 of my 2023 European adventure which started May 28th with an arrival in Slovakia (Part 1), then had me visit my mom in Bulgaria for a few days before the two of us traveled to Istanbul for a 10 day eastern Mediterranean cruise aboard MSC Splendida (Part 2). This final part involved more traveling around Europe with my wife Sandra. The original plan was that she will get to Istanbul the day of our cruise ship arrival, but because of of her more limited vacation schedule (read, not being a self-employed bum like me!), we had to cut her overall trip few days short. Given our ship's arrival falling on a Monday, the most logical choice was that we keep the original weekend return flight back, but she arrives few days later, closer to the weekend. This then meant that I ended up with 3 days before she were to arrive. I contemplated possibly traveling back with my mom, but after experiencing the ordeal at the border, it just did not make sense to waste two out of the three days stuck on the bus. So I dipped into my Hyatt points, and snagged myself a "free" stay at the Grand Hyatt by Taksim Square. If remembering correctly, the rate was only 17,000 points per night, and this was for the club-level room! The club is basically a lounge serving free breakfast and free light dinner, with alcohol included. If you wanted to be totally frugal, you could completely get by without spending a dime on food. This hotel was a really great deal. The pool is spectacular and I spent quite a bit of time there. It offered a serene sanctuary from this rather chaotic city.

Besides lounging at the pool, I also spent time exploring Istanbul. I figured these three days will give me a chance to become more acquainted with this metropolis of 15 million inhabitants, so that when Sandra comes, I can play a tour guide. At the same time, I was still working on my book so each day was split between a coffee shop and some exploring. A real neat coffee shop close to the hotel was Bohem's Coffee with its cozy upstairs nook. Sightseeing wise, I started with Taksim Square. I knew of this place as a site popular with public demonstrations. It was somewhat underwhelming, it's basically just a large concrete square with a mosque. It is however the north-eastern terminus of the extremely popular Istiklal Avenue (Caddesi). This wide nearly a mile long pedestrian street is lined with shops and majestic Ottoman era buildings. A street car runs on the tracks laid in its center. The other terminus is near the Galata tower. There I made the line and made my way to the top. I also just stopped by at some cafe for tea or coffee. This was a good opportunity to people watch. Life in Turkey - and really everywhere in the world - seems much more relaxed than in the USA, with people just casually getting together to catch up. The main issue is that while there are so many coffee shops and cafes, it seems that pretty much everyone in Turkey smokes. Coming from the USA, where public smoking has almost completely vanished, it felt really uncomfortable constantly being exposed to second hand smoke.

Near Galata Tower is also the terminus of the historic Tunel funicular. This line was opened in 1875 to connect Galata with Karakoy at the bottom of the hill. It is definitely a much appreciated addition as the hill (which I have taken already during the pre-cruise stay in Karakoy) is really steep. From Karakoy I made my way across the Golden Horn using the Galata Bridge. Golden Horn is a 750 m wide estuary of a river that flows into the Bosphorus strait. During the age of Constantinople, a large chain was pulled from the city side to the Galata Tower to prevent unauthorized ships from entering the port. Among several breaches, the most famous - and consequential - was that of Mehmed II. He was a Turkish Sultan who defeated the city in 1453 by entering the Golden Horn by pulling his ships on wooden logs (basically downed trees) over land across Galata, and then launching them upstream of the port. That to me sounds almost impossible - essentially dragging massive ships over what was before a forest, without anybody noticing, but apparently it worked out, as this event ended the Roman rule over the city.

At the bridge I caught the T1 tram towards Sultanahmet from where I walked to the The Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii). This is a truly spectacular place. Unlike catholic churches, which aim to impress with ornate paintings and gold artifacts, mosques induce awe by their vastness. Everything is massive. The volume of air. The chandeliers. And the pillars. I imagine the idea is to impress humility onto the followers by showing them how tiny and insignificant they are in the eyes of their god. At least that's my speculation. I spent a good half an hour here, just sitting against one of the columns observing the environs. But I eventually made my way across the park towards Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofia). At one point a cathedral, it converted to a mosque, only to become a popular tourist destination with a massive line of visitors trying to get in. Knowing I will need to return with Sandra, I opted to skip its interior for another day. I then made my way back on foot, passing through the various twisty streets, across the bridge, and back up the Galata hill. Walking on the Istiklal Avenue I noticed the gate to the Catholic Church of Saint Anthony of Padua. I like visiting churches since you never know what you will find once you pass the main door. In this case, it was another awe inspiring display.

Another thing I got to do was reconnecting with an old colleague, Murat C. I got to know him while working on a plasma simulation code at Virginia Tech. Murat was part of the team at MIT that was building a similar capability for the same project, just based on a different underlying mathematical formulation. He is now a professor at one of the local universities. We grabbed dinner in the Flower Passage (Çiçek Pasajı), which is a historic covered arcade connecting Istiklal Avenue to Sahne Street. On the way there, we encountered a cat resting on a scooter, this became one of my favorite photos from this trip!

On my final day alone, I moved my luggage to the hotel Sandra booked for the rest of our stay, Decamondo Galata. This was a much smaller hotel but the room was lovely and staying here gave us a chance to explore another part of Istanbul. It is located on the Bankalar Caddesi, in the district historically known as Pera, and this area had a more upscale vibe to it than both Karakoy and Taksim. Then, after dropping of my luggage in the room, which was surprisingly already ready, I made my way to the airport using the Metro. I don't quite remember which line I took first, but I remember needing to transfer at Kagithane by walking few blocks through a pretty park in a much more modern part of the city. From there, it was a straight shot on the M11 purple line to the airport. This would put me on the Pink M7 line, but that one does not got anywhere near my starting point. So, perhaps I started with the green M2 line, then transferred to pink, and finally to purple. Why I did not just stay on the green line until its connection with the purple line at Gayrettepe, I don't know!

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