From Dolmabahçe Palace we decide to return on foot back to our hotel visiting the central area of Istanbul and crossing the Golden Horn, an approximately five kilometer walk. That is if we go direct but we want to visit specific sites on the way starting with Taksim Square. And to get to Taksim Square we have to climb from the Palace and it is an unexpectedly serious and steep climb, we didn’t expect the Square to be on top of a hill.
We take a break halfway, hopefully halfway, and enjoy the older buildings and the cats before starting again up and up, it seems unending.
And the finally we arrive in the famous Taksim Square. It is considered the heart of modern Istanbul and it is the location of the Republic Monument commemorating the foundation of the Republic. It is also famous for protests, if there is something to protest it likely will happen here and as such the police presence can be quite heavy.
The square is anchored on one side by a large controversial mosque. As Taksim Square was closely associated to secularism raising a mosque here was always seen as a bit on the nose gesture, which was done by the most religious government in recent memory in Turkey and then inaugurated in 2021. However we are not here for the mosque but to start descending on Istiklal Avenue a pedestrian area that is considered to be the heart of Istanbul.
And if we judge by popularity it certainly is, we haven’t seen this many people since Covid started. They are everywhere and then there are the privileged that try to drive through the pedestrian area creating even more chaos. It is fun chaos though.
We are quite hungry at this time but we do not have yet time for a full restaurant. So we enter a cafe and buy some sweets, they are quite good and recharge us for the next few hours.
We try to avoid stores given the throngs of people but we explore side streets and quieter malls, it is a beautiful area on par with anything seen in major European cities.
We next pass a Catholic Church, Church of St. Anthony of Padua, where Pope John XXIII preached for ten years before being elected Pope. It is surprisingly popular too with many tourists visiting it.
There area some funny graffiti on the way, we really laugh out loud at the octopus with a window for its mouth.
Now it is time to start descending towards the Galata Tower, our next goal, via narrow roads. At least they are still pedestrian and we are not afraid of being run over by anyone crazy enough to drive through this street.
And then we arrive at one of the most well known sights in Istanbul, the Galata Tower. It was part of the walls of the Genovese colony in Constantinople being built at the highest point. It is visible from multiple directions in the old town and quite impressive from up close. You can climb it for better views of the city however it is a long line so we decide to skip and move on towards the Golden Horn.
And then we are at Galata bridge, one of the bridges over the Golden Horn and probably the most popular one. It is full of people both walking or just standing and we have to be quite careful not to bump into anyone as we start the crossing.
It is very popular for fishing also, quite interesting, don’t remember seeing any other major bridges in other capitals being used for fishing. In addition if you can get to the side of the bridge, not easy, then you can catch glimpses of yachts of ferries plying their trade in the harbor.
Now it is time to explore the Grand Bazaar but as we enter the area we are surprised at the number of people. Which is lower than we expected given what we observed on the streets and even on the Galata bridge previously. Also many stores seem to be closed, quite unexpected to us.
And then as we arrive at the entrance to the Golden Bazaar we understand, today the Bazaar is closed. We had no idea there is even a day it is closed but today is that day so now the only thing remaining on our list is to find a restaurant and eat a typical Turkish meal.
We decide to look for a restaurant near our hotel so that is the direction we go in passing the impressive 18th century Nuruosmaniye Mosque on the way. Here is also the Column of Constantine commemorating the dedication of Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 330AD, the oldest Constantinian monument to survive in Istanbul.
We find a restaurant quite close to our hotel and it has lots of specialties that we wanted so in we go. We order a full meal starting with appetizers and also buying Ayran, we really had to try it. Ayran is more or less yogurt with salt and not that good in our opinion but at least we tried it.
The main dishes are quite good pide and some gyro like food with fries, but likely everything would be good at this point as we are famished. In fact we eat too much almost, we feel too full so we decide to continue our walk at night into the nearby tourist area. To see Istanbul at night, as is, something we really wanted to do.
Of course nothing is open but walking at night at least avoids the heat of the day and there are more people than we expected exploring the area near the Blue Mosque. Which is entered via a security checkpoint that luckily is passed easily.
Istanbul is different at night and we walk off the dinner for a while before finally returning to the hotel for the night. We are really tired and tomorrow we have another long day planned so soon we fall asleep after a beautiful day in Istanbul.
