Thursday, May 9, 2002 20:36
Weather: High cloud, lots of sun, cool.
Location: Rooftop patio of the Hotel Antique, SW of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul.

I met a Canadian and a Singaporean travelling through Turkey together, Oliver & Jean, and suggested we meet later for a drink. When we got together, they suggested going back to their hotel, where they've arranged permission to use the little kitchen on the roof. I bought a bottle of wine, and we're working on a grilled fish with saffron rice and beans with garlic. Smells yummy!

Today was Museum Day: the Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum this morning, and the three buildings of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum this afternoon. By the end of that, I was totally museum-ed out, and still felt like I hadn't seen much of the city, since everything I've seen for the last two days has been in one district, Sultanhamet. So I walked downhill towards the Halic (Golden Horn), the strait separating the old city (where I am) from Beyoglu to the north.

Here I found fewer tourists and many, many more Turks: the Eminonu district has a lot of stores and is a transport hub, with a busy ferry dock that I plan to return to tomorrow to catch a trip up the Bosphorus. The area actually felt a bit like Hong Kong, with the unrestrained capitalism and crush of people I remember from there.

As for the museums, they were all good, though short on context. A good guide book might have helped, though many of the other visitors seemed to have gone one better and hired an actual guide.
posted by Tom at 9:00 PM | link |