Day 2 – Our first day in the magical city

We awoke full of life and the excitement of intrepid adventures in a new city. We packed and attempted to leave the hostel room, which would not unlock! The 4 of us spent 10 minutes banging on the door and trying every possible turning sequence to get it open. Finally it did and we bundled downstairs to the aroma of free breakfast and brewing coffee. It was a perfect little café on the bottom floor of the hostel overlooking cobbled streets. We met up with Matt, and Simon, who had discovered the wonderful world of hotel roofs and was very excited about the rain from the previous night.
We bimbled (Simon’s word) up the road in search of the Blue Mosque. This is the mosque that most visitors see first. In many cases it's the only mosque that they see. Built on the orders of Sultan Ahmet 1 and still bearing his name, the Blue Mosque of Sultanahmet dominates, in conjunction with Aya Sofya, the Hippodrome area which has always been the center of the city. Mehmet Aga was the architect and the Mosque took 7 years to build. The Sultan himself joined the builders on several occasions to lend a hand but died within 12 months of its completion at the age of 27.
While on our way to marvel at this great building we were stopped by some very brightly dressed men with large metal jugs on their backs. They offered us some cherry juice which they poured from these great jugs by bending over at the hip and letting the juice fall in a long stream into cups. I can’t say the warm sweet fruity drink was particularly refreshing or delicious but the experience was enjoyable none the less.
The mosque was amazing; we entered a large court yard from the gardens at the side of the building. Inside was a large open space surrounded by great walls and beautiful carvings, terraces and trellises.
From the mosque we walked down the hill to the Arasta Markets were we spent an hour looking in all the shops and book marking favorites for purchasing on our return to Istanbul. At the end of the long stretch of shops was the lovely Masele café with low lying tables and delicate sent of fruit flavored tobacco being smoked through large hooker pipes.
After lunch we walked back the square where the Blue Mosque sits and continued past it towards the gardens Topkapı Palace. As we walked though we had to stop and enjoy the cool grass and shady tress as we had been missing them living in the desert. We regained our senses after a grass intake and continued on to catch the ferry from Eminönoü to Üsküdar which is claimed by lonely Planet to be the shortest, cheapest, most romantic boat ride in the world. It was very cheap and very fast but romantic?? Not so sure about that.
After alighting we wandered around for about 30 minutes taking in the sites and buying orange juice. The 5 of us then piled into a taxi and headed up to Camlica Restaurant (Turistick Camlica Caddesi), which is the highest point in the city. The views were beautiful although unreasonably obstructed by trees which cut into pictures and the full view of the city fading in the sunset.
We sat in the warm sun as it disappeared over the city and enjoyed local food and drinks. As the sun sets about 6:30pm in Doha we were quite surprised to realize that it was already 7pm when we looked at our clocks. For once Matt was not the only one saying “really!” with straining neck muscles! After a quick consultation of the trusty Lonely Planet Guide we walked back down the hill to get a taxi to the ferry dock.

We caught the same boat as earlier in the day and sailed back over to Eminönoü where we found the tram line and headed back to the hostel to shower and change. As we moved closer to Eminönoü the sun began setting and it was a magical sight to see the golden orange sun setting over the thorny juts of Istanbul’s plentiful mosques.

For dinner we decided the destination was Taksim. The place was bursting with people and energy and it was great walking around and soaking up the atmosphere while we searched for a good place to do dinner. Most of the restaurants have terraces on the top, usually about the 6-7th floor, a definite selling point, and in most cases you get an uninterrupted view of the magnificent city or of some other wondrous site. We chose a place based on the number of hearty looking locals, and without much hesitation ordered some local beer. Large trays were brought around stacked with scrumptious looking delicacies and we chose a number of plates. The meal was divine, swordfish with dill, moussaka, salads, dips and breads it was sensational. The local beer Effis was very thirst quenching and a great accompaniment to the salty foods. We were nearing the end of the meal when 3 gentlemen came into the restaurant singing and playing instruments. They started off softly and gradually got louder, taking the fancy of a rather rowdy local guy who was sitting behind our table. It was not long before he (and most of his table) were up and dancing around to the beat in the small spaces between the tables.
He tried many times to get us all up and dancing and succeeded in the end. Matt was hoisted up onto a chair as was another of the girls from the his group. Nanine also made it to the chairs and not long after to the table and was dancing in-between the plates with a local Turkish guy while the music got even more rampant. There is some awesome footage of us all frolicking around!! The songs then dried up as did the noise as the musicians collected

money from the audience and continued on to there next location. Our restaurant returned to a quite hum, our tablecloth and plates returned to their original position and dinner resumed as if nothing had happened. Accept for the smirks we all had on our faces and the low chattering about the events that we had all just witnessed. More beer was ordered; we finished our dinner and moved on in high sprits to a quaint 4th floor bar a little further down the street.

Nanine and I tried the local brew which is Düz Raki, very similar to strong ozo. I had to have a can of coke to wash down every mouthful it was bloody strong stuff. From there we moved on to Blanco. We could see this nightclub from the street below. It was on the 5th floor and the party goes spilled out on to an upper and lower terrace which looked down the alleyway where all the restaurants were. A great place to party till the early hours and watch the world go by down on the street below. The moon was full and large that night and I wish I could have captured the feeling and the aura as it was incredible.

Ellen and I decided to go back to the Hostel at about 2:30pm as the next day we had a big day of adventures to accomplish, as well as a late night flight down to the coast. I grabbed a tasty kebab on the way home yummy!