Good morning Istanbul.
It was a gloomy morning. Our first stop would be
Kadiköy and ferry was the best method to get there from Karaköy in my opinion.
Istanbul Modern from Bosphorus
A similar Istanbul Şehir Hatları ferry.
Haydarpaşa Station, currently defunct. Nobody knows its fate yet.
Giant Turkish flag welcomed us at Kadiköy.
I would try to catch a live football game whenever I am in Turkey and the
Süper Lig match between
Fenerbahçe and
Kasımpaşa was the only match during our short time there.
In 2014, the Turkish government introduced the controversial law which made it mandatory for fans to have
Passolig cards in order to purchase tickets to matches, leading to
fans' protests and boycotts.
Despite the additional bureaucracy, we bit the bullet and followed the recommended way of getting our Passoligs at the stadium (versus applying for them online). Since Fenerbahçe was the home team , we went all the way to
Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium and got ours at 21 TRY each.
Although we were able to get Passoligs at the ticket office, we had to go to buy our tickets online or at one of the NKolay kiosks located at certain convenience stores.
We ended up having to pay the proprietor a little more as Turkish ID numbers were required to purchase tickets at the kiosk and he had to get his friend to purchase the ticket for us over the phone.
It started to rain by the time we were done and we seeked shelter at a cafe where we had
mantı and
börek for brunch. Yums.
After the rain cleared, we took the ferry to Eminönü where we changed to a bus which brought us to near
Chora Museum.
Extensive restoration work was underway for the museum and the scaffolding was erected around the exterior.
A recurring theme in Istanbul.
Only the narthex and pareclession were open to visitors as the naos was closed for restoration work.
Despite the partial closure, the frescoes were still magnificent.
There were other places of interest nearby and we had an interesting walk in the historic yet less-touristed neighbourhood.
Coca Cola
"Our love story"
Fethiye Museum is one of the museums covered by Istanbul Museum Pass and we went in to have a look at the mosaics.
Continuing our walk through the interesting streets of
Fener. Both of us suspected that the neighbourhood could be gentrified in the not too distant future.
Abandoned
Colourful houses
Fener was where many Greeks used to stay (many had emigrated from Turkey) and there were still Greek school and churches in the neighbourhood.
Phanar Greek Orthodox College reminded me of Harry Potter. I don't know why.
Inside
Church of St George, seat of
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Bulgarian St Stephen's Church, one of the world's few surviving prefabricated cast iron churches. The exterior was boarded up for restoration as well.
Golden Horn
We arrived back at Eminönü just in time for the 4pm Bosphorus Cruise (12 TRY)
Seagulls
Vodafone Arena should be completed by my next visit.
Bosphorus Bridge
We turned around near
Rumelihisarı. The entire trip took us slightly more than one hour and I would recommend it to every visitor to Istanbul.
Dinner would be
hamsi and
midye dolma.
Couldn't resist the
Tantuni when we walked back to our accommodation.
Pretty cool ad for
Banksy exhibition at Karaköy.
