Istanbul - June 13 – Day 120

Istanbul - June 13 – Day 120

Istanbul - June 13 – Day 120

We have been in Istanbul since June 7^th and are leaving tomorrow on the 14^th, in the afternoon.  We are driving to Bulgaria which sounds exciting and intimidating in the same breath.  Maybe slightly more on the intimidating side.  If we are lucky enough to make Plovdiv on the first night our best camping option so far looks like a parking lot next to a bakery.  But something will turn up.

It did in Istanbul.  We have spent 6 nights in comfy and stylish rooms

 in downtown chic Beyoglu.  

Not that I have much use for vintage clothing stores and hipster coffee bars but I don’t mind pretending that I do.  And it is very picturesque.  Jo has been discovering art galleries.

We have all buckled down to some sightseeing (Hagia Sofia, Basilica Cistern, Bosphorous Cruise, Open topped bus tour,  Naval Museum, Archeology Museum, Carpet Museum, Tacksim Square and more) and there is not a body in our Merry Band that can’t tell you a thing or two about the Ottomans.  

What a rich history and civilization and I knew almost nothing before I came.  Still don’t really but I have seen the evidence.  My western view of civilization and the course of history is yet again challenged and amended.  I must stop all this travelling or it will turn out that I don’t know anything at all.

Which has been a point.  I mean the stopping travelling.  We have had plenty of time here and have enjoyed the place. Taran’s and Jo’s inspiration really to extend and hunker down and live in rooms again for a week.  And I didn’t argue and it seems to have calmed us all.  Not to have to be doing something all the time just to keep going.  And having a little space. And some pets.  And some new socks ( a present from Jo and Taran),  some proper education, a neighbourhood and a break from the blog. And a Turkish Bath.  I’m going for my second tonight and taking Taran this time.  And a hair cut – I think I look like a bank manager on holiday except for the t shirt.

Taran and I spent most of a day on his “project”.  Inspiration had settled upon him.  He needs must, in order to show his love to his mother, buy, empty and wash a large jar of Nutella as a container for some special presents.  Jo hates Nutella and Taran thought it an excellent joke to give her the presents in a Nutella jar. He would not be persuaded and I was in the mood to humour him.  We emptied the Nutella (horrible sweet sticky stuff) down the toilet.  We washed the jar.  He (and I)  had scoured the Spice Bazaar and before that a super market and before that a campsite gift shop for just the right combination of gifts to suit his pocket and his eye. He could not fit the bars of soap, the bracelet, the Olive Bodywash, the bar of chocolate and the special tea inside the Nutella pot.  So some were wrapped separately.  There was a very sweet hand crafted card which I was happy to sign too and then a presentation. Jo was charmed.

I just got a call from Jo who is out with Hilal a friend from Oxford, Taran and Neslihan her daughter and Taran’s school friend.  We met them at the weekend. She is an architect/historian and was very engaging filling in our Ottoman knowledge over a long Turkish breakfast overlooking the Bosphorous and then tea while Taran and Ness romped in a tree top adventure playground.

They live in Istanbul and Jo and Taran are visiting her this evening and staying a little later now so no Turkish Bath and I have time in the flat to finish this blog.  Or I could go out for a bath myself. 

Which is tempting – mostly when I think about it because of the bubbles.  The attendants soak a giant tea bag in soap then in a graceful and intricate flip and squash they fill and squeeze a vast raft of bubbles onto you massage and repeat.  It is great fun and great relaxation and the best bit is the swoosh with cooler water when they wash the bubbles away and start again.  Very refreshing – more please.

What else in Istanbul.

Yesterday the 12^th.

We fished off the Galeta Bridge for mackerel (Barney tells me) in the company of a helpful and tolerant community of anglers. 

It was all knots for half an hour for me and Taran before aid was sympathetically offered.  We simply could not manage the knots ourselves.  

Then thankfully did not catch anything.  What would we have done with a fish and Taran’s (and Jo’s) advanced squeamishness and anthropomorphic compassion?  So in the end it was a nice thing to do in the sun and salt breeze with the ferries bustling around and the Bosphorous before us. 

And then we went to the Grand Bazaar which does not disappoint as it is extremely large and sells everything – sort of like an embodied Amazon.  And very confusing.  But in the age of Amazon I wonder how it will survive.  Its booming now!  Very busy.  As was the Egyptian Spice Bazaar.  Taran’s favorite

And then the Mosque of Suleman the Magnificent which was beautiful and airy and inspiring really..

 

Today the 13^th I went to the Topkapi Palace and waited in queues to see sublime tiling, priceless treasures and vast airy spaces for Sultans to live in.  

I even saw Mohammed’s footprint. 

In a room where the Quaran has been read out loud continuously for 500 years. At least that's what I think it said. 

Jo and Taran stayed at home with the books and the sofa.  Taran wrote a song.  Jo read Olivia’s new novel and phoned home.

It will be hard to get in the van again and not have such entertainment and facilities laid on so easily for us. 

But the adventure continues although today I got the first feeling of this time, these months of travel coming to an end.  We are turning back now and will not be so far away again.  Talk is of driving back in two or three weeks as home is missed and time wanted before America.  Which is fine but it means an end approaches and thinking back at some of it all and remembering suddenly one of the many many  things we have done, that actually happened, I stopped in front of a fireplace in the kitchens of the Topkapi and had not to  cry.  I have not looked much beyond this time.  It is day to day but a time together like this will not come again easily.  There will be work.  There will be lives to live.

We were joking as we played cards last night, sat out on the busy street.  Very easy in each other’s company.  Then later Taran offering sage advice as he likes to do.  “Let me write that email Dad.  I know what to say”.  Indeed.