Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Correspondent Uncle Paul's Istanbul Recap: Part One

Finally! After the hectic holidays and ringing in the New Year, I am finally posting up my Uncle Paul's fantastic description of he and my Aunt Elena's trip to Istanbul, Turkey, a favorite here at the Four Corners. Bear in mind, Paul has, like, a PhD in English, so he kinda has the whole writing bit nailed down. Anyway, I will be putting it up in installments, and here is the first one. The whole thing will be up before I depart for Thailand, which is just a week from today! A special treat for FC readers, and a great opening to 2012. Enjoy:

Elena and I landed in Istanbul at Attaturk Airport at around 10 AM, a day before beginning our RickSteves “Istanbul in 7 days” tour. The lines for passport control and a visa ($20) were surprisingly quick. We headed to an ATM to get Turkish lire, and then we got some change for our big bills so we could givetips. (Breaking bills to get tip money was always an issue; we learned that you should always have a good supply of one lire coins for tips.)

We grabbed a cab to our first hotel, the Hotel Sphendon. It was our first because we planned to get in a day before our tour started, and we found a hotel that was much cheaper than our tour hotel for an extra night. The Sphendon was one of three less expensive hotels recommended by our tour hosts, the Rick Steves company. (We reserved the Sphendon for a night after our tour as well.) The cab ride to the hotel was along the Bosphorus, which gave us a beautiful view of the water. I’d never seen so many big freighters so clearly visible from the heart of the city. Our cab driver asked our pardon and stopped at a gas station on the way. Though we gave him a piece of paper with our hotel’s address, we’re pretty sure he stopped for directions. Apparently, the streets of Istanbul are so small, numerous, and convoluted that even cab drivers need to get directions.

The Hotel Sphendon turned out to be a fairly small hotel, about four stories. Our room was comfortable and facing the small courtyard of the hotel, which held about four tables with chairs and was surrounded by rock-formation walls. The courtyard rooms are probably less well-lighted than those that face the street, but probably much quieter, too. I also liked the quiet and dark feel of the room; kind of like it was our own little Istanbul cocoon. The room had a feature that apparently is common in Istanbul hotels, but it was the first time I had seen it: the room key needed to be put into a slot to activate the electricity in the room. When you removed the key, after a brief time, the electricity went off. Interesting set up.

After dropping off our stuff, Elena and I went out for lunch. We went to a restaurant recommended by the Sphendon’s desk worker, the Doy Doy Restaurant. We went in to the restaurant, and one of the waiters pointed to the ceiling and said that we should go to the terrace to eat. Apparently, restaurant terraces are a big draw for tourists, or at least restaurant owners in Istanbul are convinced of this; many restaurants in our area advertised terraces. Though it was breezy and we were occasionally annoyed by greedy birds, the terrace had a beautiful view of the top of the Blue Mosque, one of the two great mosques in Istanbul. While we were eating, a call to prayer was made from the Blue Mosque, the first we’d heard since arriving. It was loud and very impressive, lasting about five minutes. There are five calls to prayer a day, at dawn, midday, mid-afternoon, just after sunset, and about two hours after sunset. I came to find these calls to be quite pleasant and reassuring. When they occurred, it was like, “Everything is ok and on track.” (Sort of like the flashing of the lights at night on the Eiffel Tower.)

After lunch, Elena and I rested until around dinner time. Then we ventured out onto the winding streets near our hotel to try to find our tour hotel and some dinner. We walked down a deserted, fairly scary alley to another busy street, a half dozen hotels on each side of the street right next to each other, and then saw our hotel just up the street a block, the Hotel Obelisk, about a five-minute walk from the Sphendon. We briefly looked in at the Obelisk and said hello to the desk staff, noting that we would be checking in with them the following day as part of the Rick Steves tour group. Rick Steves, of course, is the head of the company hosting our tour and a star of travel videos often shown on PBS; Elena and I affectionately refer to him as “Ricky.” We asked for directions to a restaurant recommended in Ricky’s Istanbul guidebook, called the Yildiz Restaurant. The desk clerk gave us some directions and off we went. Along our walk, again through hilly and winding streets, we came across a lot of stray cats; apparently the city is chock full of them. We also noted that many of them were eating food put out by nearby residents. So the stray cats and the local people seem to have a good and peaceful relationship.

The Yildiz was a twisty 15-minute walk from the Obellisk. The seating area was all enclosed in glass, including some doors that were pretty much open to the cool evening. A waiter seated us and turned on an outdoor heater to warm us up (though the evening really wasn’t that cold, maybe in the low 60’s). This place appeared to be a local favorite—a group of people were playing backgammon in one corner, and another fellow was at a table smoking a hookah. I had a shish kabob and Elena had a “sauté,” made with chicken and vegetables. Both dishes were very good, and not too expensive. Good call, Ricky!

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