Travels with Kathryn

Having spent Wednesday sheltering from the rainy weather, organising laundry, and planning/booking the next month or so (the homepage is in the process of being updated), yesterday I went on a pilgrimage. Last year, I went on (with my brother) a Secret Food Tour, and our final stop (by which we were too full to squash any more food in) on this tour was the BEST soup I have ever had! Yes, get excited about soup people as it happened…

However, I am getting ahead of myself. I started off with a ferry across the Bosphorus to the Asian side. This is probably my last visit to Central Asia on this trip, and maybe I have already re-embraced my European-ness as the weather was decidedly better on the European side than the Asian side. Anyway, the ferry is always fun and gave me a little photo opportunity:

One of the things I noticed looking at Istanbul is that all the flags are flying at half mast – you may have noticed this on the Maidan Tower and ferry flags above. This is to reflect a period of national morning:

As Turkey, we deeply feel the great pain experienced by our Palestinian brothers. In respect for the thousands of martyrs, most of whom are children and innocent civilians, our country has declared a 3-day period of national mourning”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 19 October 2023.

I have been attempting to keep up the news as to what has been happening in Israel and Gaza, but it is clear that unlike most (if not all) Western (one could say Christian?) countries, Turkey is strongly aligning itself to the Palestinian cause. I note that the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a trip to Tel Aviv yesterday – no idea what that was intended to achieve.

Moving on to a lighter topic: food! I had a wander around the streets (stopping for a quick snack):

I also visited the bull (waiting a rather long time to have a person-less photo). The Altiyol Bull sculpture was ade in 1864 and was originally part of a collection of 22 bronze and marble animals ordered to decorate the gardens of the Ciragan Palace and Beylerbeyi Palace. This was moved in 1969 acorss the water to Kadikoy, and then in 1990 to its present location on a traffic island, which I suspect, to the bull, feels like a little bit of a comedown.

From the bull, it was a short walk to the place of the soup, the driver behind this whole mission, Durumcu Emmi (established in 1974). The soup I am talking about is called Beyran and is a soup of meat (lamb), rice, garlic, hot pepper, and ground chilli. It is served with bread (obviously) and spinach (to cut through the fat), and the (huge) restaurant was full of office workers, and they were all eating the soup (always a good sign!).

Feeling warm and happy, I decided to take a ride on the circular tram around Kadikoy and then an amble back to the ferry terminal. From which I took a funicular up the hill and home.

After a restful evening, today I set off on a day trip to the largest of the Princes Islands – Buyukada. The Princes Islands are an archipelago of 9 islands southeast of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara. During the Byzantine Empire, out of favour princes and other members of royalty were exiled to these islands (hence their name), and after 1453 members of the Ottoman Sultan’s family were exiled here too. During the 19th century they became a popular resort for Istanbul’s wealthy who built holiday homes, and these, along with the fact that motorised vehicles are banned from the islands, gives it a somewhat preserved resort feeling and if you ask me, it would be a delightful place to be exiled to!

I got an early ferry as it is a nearly 2 hour ride, but its a lovely trip, first across the Bosphorus and then around the Asian side into the Sea of Marmara stopping at 3 of of the islands before the 4th stop of Buyukada.

On arrival I had a little walk around the town picking myself out potential retirement properties (obviously being technically homeless at the moment, I am not thinking genuine real estate, just something for when I am in my dotage):

I then treated myself to seafood overlooking the sea – I think this is my last fish since a lunch in Kyrgyzstan so it has been a while, and I certainly haven’t had any shellfish since I set out. I loved it.

I also had a tour around the island using the only public transport, which is a 6-row golf cart. A circumnavigation of the island takes about 20 minutes so totally worth it and it gave me just long enough to finish my ice cream – I know how to holiday (as travelling to an island was effectively a day trip thus requiring ice cream).

I arrived home just in time for the sunset and am now settling down with last Saturday’s Strictly and maybe a couple of crisps for dinner. Tomorrow, I feel a little culture may be in order, and I am off to a museum. I shall also attempt to exchange earrings that Mum bought at another museum shop that are faulty, so fingers crossed everyone!