Istanbul Part 2

Day 3  December 27

Today is one of our “See the Sites” day.  We get up and out early.  First on our itinerary is the ruins of the Rumeli Fortress - built in 1452 (40 years before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.  Tricia did a great job with planning and researching transportation.  However, even with great planning, there can be errors. We found the bus to the part of town called “Rumeli.”  It journeyed through Levent, this business district where we had lunch the day before. When we got off the bus we were excited because we could see the towers of the fortress directly below us.  So we began our journey – searching for ways to head in that direction.  

Way #1 resulted in a dead-end very quickly.  No problem.  We head in another direction.  Way #2 heads downhill in the direction of the towers.  Down, down, down we go.   I’m thinking I really don’t want to hike back up to catch the bus home.  Finally we see a sign describing the fortress (in Turkish) and we walk toward a gate.  The gate is locked.  We can see people walking around inside the fortress, but we can’t get in this way.  No problem – we’re close right?   

Way #2. We follow the fortress wall – more downhill.  (Did I mention we walked a long way down hill?) By the time we reach the cemetery we are walking away from the fortress – no longer toward it.  We’ve been walking downhill for at least 45 minutes or so.  When we look down towards where the land meets the Strait all we see is the Bosphorus – no indication of a road or other transportation below us. 

Way #3. We turn around and retrace our steps – uphill.  Finally we ask someone and get an answer in Turkish and gestures to turn up ahead and go to the right.  Onward we go.  We take a street to the right we had passed earlier.  We head downhill again.  At one point I tell Tricia “I’ll wait up here” while she checks out to see if the street goes where we want to go.  I am weary and don’t want to do more unnecessary ups and downs.  She explores and yes, it goes to a main street below.

This busy street runs along the Bosphorus, but we couldn’t see it (or hear it) from above because of the steepness of the slope of the hill.  After all our wandering up and down the streets around the exterior of the fortress we were tired and frustrated (probably 75-90 minutes).  It was a good time for lunch.   

We found an outdoor café.  An unexpected treat was that once we sat down, someone came by with hot coals to put in an brazier under the table to keep our legs and feet warm on a chilly day.  Wow – it was awesome.  This setting reminded me of Sausalito, near San Francisco.  A quaint little restaurant overlooking the water and the boardwalk that runs along the Strait across the street. Once we rested and refueled we were ready to be successful in our quest.

Way #4 – the main road led us to the main entrance of the Rumeli Fortress – only a 10 minute (level) walk along the Bosphorus.  Not only that, but as we’re walking we see buses that would have been more direct in getting us to the Fortress. At least it will be an easy journey home.

Tricia has amazing energy – she’s an athlete who runs, bikes, hikes long distances.  Once we got to the fortress she wanted to hike up the stairs to the towers and top of the walls (which we were looking down on earlier in the morning).  I was more tired, and chose which tower I was willing to go up to.  The fortress steps were huge - like 18 inches high – lots of thigh work climbing up. The views were gorgeous though – so worth the effort.

We headed home for a short break.  At 7:30 we met our new couchsurfing friends at the café with the intention of going salsa dancing at a Cuban club.  Around 9:30 we head out and it turns out there was no band that night. So we head out to another club with live music and spend a couple of hours dancing.  My body is telling me I’ve had more exercise in the past few days than in recent weeks of winter.  However – I loved dancing.  My body worked out some of the kinks from climbing all those hills and fortress steps.  Fulya even taught us some belly dancing moves.  What fun!  She said because this was our first time dancing belly dancing moves – we had to work our way up to the front of the crowd.  O.K. fine.  In my younger years I would have been more shy and reluctant, but now….why not!  We got home around 2:30.  Fulya and her two male friends walked us halfway home to make sure we were o.k.  This was particularly generous of them because it was in the opposite direction of "home" for them and at least one of the young men had to be at work at 6:00 a.m. I have much appreciation for the kindness of the people we met on our journey!!!  Tricia and I agreed to sleep in the next morning.