Turkish Coffee in a Turkish coffee shop!

A funny thing happened to me on the last night there. I was coming back from the old district using public transportation and was walking along the main shopping street in Beyoglu, and found a shop with wonderful desserts in the window. After I had show a number of photos of the baklava and other desserts in the window, the Turkish couple who noticed me shooting pictures said to me: now, you must go in and eat these (desserts)!

Not knowing any better, I said, is this good? To which they said: yes, it's a local favorite, it's very famous.

If they considered it good, then I figured I couldn't go wrong.

While my French colleagues were 20 kilometers away dining at a 60EUR a head fish restaurant looking out on the Bosphorous, I was in the middle of Istanbul, munching an (authentic) Turkish Doner Kebab sandwich, followed by ... Burma Kadayif (deep fried angel-hair pastry filled with roasted pistachios and honey ... yum!) and Turkish coffee, which I can only describe as coffee with the consistency of mud, that is, silt filling your mouth the same time as the espresso-like coffee.

I was so impressed with the dessert that I bought two to take home with me to France so that I might enjoy it with hot tea one cold evening after dinner ...

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LINKS

The store I ate at was:

http://www.saraymuhallebicisi.com/ (only in Turkish)

I can't vouch for the quality of the food here, but anyone going to New York in the future wanna try this out for me? Search for "Turkish restaurant New York" in Google and you'll get a couple of other suggestions.

http://www.turkishkitchenny.com/coldappetizers.htm

Public Transportation in Istanbul

During my time in Istanbul, I was only able to ride on public transportation one half-day. But at least I accomplished what I had come to do: buy an akbil rechargeable battery token (see the photo of an orange ticket) and then ride the modern tram and the Tunel funiculaire (Karakoy - Tunel), together with the locals.

You buy a battery-like token, known as an Akbil, at one of the booths pictured above (or other mobile stands like the one I just happened to find at one of the back entrances of the Grand Bazaar) for 6 Turkish Lira ($4, refundable), charge it up with as much or as little as you like (I did 5 Lira, the equivalent of four or five short rides), and you're on your way.

As you go through a turnstile, instead of feeding a ticket like you do in JR stations in Japan or the BART in San Francisco, you instead press the battery side of the token up against the red button located next to the left of the LCD display on the turnstile. Your credit is deducted and the display shows the credit remaining (I think). It's an incredibly low-tech system, but it works well, except when the battery doesn't make contact with the red button reader on the turnstile.

The Akbil is useable on all the various means of transport in Istanbul: buses, metro (which I didn't get to ride on here), tram, funiculaire, and even the "old-style" tram, which I feature here again (it's the one with the children hanging on the end of it).

I recommend that you try buying an Akbil if you can. It's fun to go local!

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LINKS:

An excellent write-up of the Akbil, and the site where I heard about this and got interested in getting one and using it, to see how the technology works:

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Istanbul/Transport/Akbil.html

On the opposite side of the plaza: the somber yet beautifully intricate Blue Mosque






Just a few minutes walk and best to be seen with the Ayasofya as a pair is the SultanAhmed mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque.

A rose garden greets you as you walk in and a large courtyard where believers perhaps pray if they are not able to enter inside the humongous mosque.

Although it is a mosque and many tourists visit there, tourists are allowed to take photos as long as they do not disturb followers there who have come to pray. It's a carpeted area and you take your shoes off as you enter (just as in Japan) so it's more conducive to kneeling for your prayers.

Inside are all sorts of intricate patterns, as well as the names of the prophets written in Arabic script.
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LINK:
Wikipedia entry on the Blue Mosque

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque

Ayasofya -- Saint Sofia: Byzantine Church -> Mosque

The two grand sites in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul, St. Sofia Church-Mosque and the Blue Mosque, stand on opposites sides of a picturesque plaza with a fountain in the midst of it. The whole area is so well taken care of it feels almost like Disneyland.

The church itself is incredibly huge and as you can see of a rather unique architectural style. Originally built by the Byzantines, the Muslim Sultan converted it into a mosque after taking over Istanbul. The interior of the building shows its age, from the weather-beaten ceilings to the well-worn rock steps, and apparently has been in the process of renovation for at least the last decade. Perhaps even more.

What is fascinating is that murals like the one pictured here are being uncovered by the archaeological work being done on the place. Just as with some of the famous paintings in Italy, they were painted over by later generations and only now, are the original paintings beginning to see the light of day once again.

Incidentally the church now serves as a historical museum, with Ataturk declaring it a non-religious building and opening it to all of the Turkish people. Hence, even non-Muslims can enter this place without any special restriction on manner or dress. A number of school kids were here and they posed for a photo ...

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LINKS

Wikipedia entry on the Ayasofya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia