Spent the night down a deserted dirt track leading to a farm. Went back to Sarkoy to the bank and the ATM regurgitated Jennifer’s card. Sarkoy is a nice little town.
Stopped at a service station with a life-size Santa Claus for a coffee. Slowed down for a very realistic plywood police car with a flashing red light at the side of the road, followed two miles later by a real police car flagging down every speeding motorist.
Driving into Istanbul was unrelenting misery. About 40 miles of housing, factories, shopping malls and roadside shops with a three-lane motorway crammed full of all types of vehicles and lunatics weaving from one lane to another or across all three. I stuck to the inside lane so that cars could squeeze in front of me from only one side, but then got honked at from behind by cars wanting to pass me. After crossing the Bosphorus over a spectacular bridge, I turned off the first small road which climbed a hill and passed the extremely posh looking “La Colina” restaurant. With my nerves just about shot, I said “lets go here for a meal” and Jennifer agreed. Drove into a carpark guarded by two men charged with keeping the riff-raff out and, somehow or other, got into the restaurant. Spectacular views of the Bosphorus.
The meals were surprisingly inexpensive and deliciously good. Jennifer had chicken schnitzel and I had a “Keltik Kebab”. The carpark man called a taxi for us but, as it was Friday (the Islamic Sunday) the traffic was very heavy and he was prepared to take us only to the ferry terminal. First mistake of the day: we got the ferry to Besiktas rather than Karakoy and had a long walk down the shore of northern Istanbul but past some very old Ottoman mosques.
We walked along the bridge crossing the Golden Horn, past hundreds of fisherman catching small sprats which were being fried at small roadside cafes, to Karakoy then up the hill to the Suleimaniyah, one of the two major mosques of the Fattih old town of Istanbul. We hadn’t been before and it was very impressive.
A short walk brought us to the Grand Bazaar, the world’s biggest covered market which is huge and easy to get lost in, as we know from a previous visit. Full of stalls selling tourist tat, although the spice stalls are interesting.
Major disappointment: the Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque) was closed for renovation (although we’ve been before) and the Hagia Sofia was closed although two girls inveigled their way in.
Second mistake of the day. I thought we had crossed from Kadikoy to Besiktas on the ferry because there was a big sign saying “Kadikoy”. I thought Kadikoy was the name of the terminal, not a destination. So returning across the Bosphorus, we got a ticket to Kadikoy and arrived with no idea where we were in relation to the van.
A very fast taxi driver took us back on a very long journey to La Colina for only 27 lira (£5.50, proving that there are some honest taxi drivers in Istanbul) where we had another excellent meal, and then set off for Izmir in the mistaken belief that the traffic would be lighter. Third mistake of the day: it was even heavier. After 30 miles the satnav sent us on a ferry for 5.5 miles (rather than an 80 mile detour round an inlet) but we decided to spend the night up a side street and get the ferry in the morning.
