Istaneattle

It seems when I travel to a different time zone, it is always the second night that I have trouble with. The pattern repeats itself here, as by 2:30 in the morning I am wide awake, and by 3:30, I throw in the towel, figuring its a better use of time to roll out of bed and catch up on some work than to simply stare at the ceiling. I don’t recall Angela’s exact words, but in my head they went something like “I just love the rhythmic tapping of the keyboard in the middle of the night. It lulls me to sleep, so thank you for sacrificing your rest for my benefit.” That may no be an exact rendition, but pretty close I think.

Not surprisingly, by the time 8 am rolls around and it is time to start getting ready to head out, we are both a little lethargic. We had planned on going back to Sultanahmet to see Topkapi Palace and return to the Grand Bazaar, but that suddenly seems like a huge undertaking, particularly given the Seattlesque skies overhead. After some discussion (which makes us feel like we are doing something, even though its a transparent attempt to not have to move), we decide to start with Dolmabahce Palace, which is just down the hill from us, and then figure out where to go from there.

The palace was built in the 1800s as the new home for the sultan (previous sultan’s lived at Topkapi Palace), who at the time was moving the country in a more westernized direction (hence the location on the European side of the Bosphorus and the European style of architecture). It also helped solve the problem of what to do with the 35 tonnes of gold (14 of those used to cover the ceilings) that were piling up in the corners of the old place, which, I guess, is a fairly good problem to have. The complex (all 485,000 square feet of it), is split into two sections, one used for the administrative functions of the empire, and the other for the living quarters for the sultan and his many lizadies (wives plus the 500 female slaves required to take care of them).

By the time we finish, the overcast skies have turned into a fairly constant drizzle, so we decide to walk back up the hill to the hotel (which looks MUCH closer than it actually turns out to be) and come up with a plan for the rest of the day. En route, we see a falafel restaurant and decide to give it a try, and while it good, Yum-Yum’s still reigns supreme.

When we finally make it back to our room, the lack of sleep hits me like a ton of bricks, and I close my eyes only to find 4 hours have passed when I open them. In the meantime, Angela has gone to check out the Turkish bath in the hotel, which earns a rating of two thumbs up.

With the day mostly over, we decide to walk over to Istiklal Street for dinner. We have passed a few places in our time here that serve kumpir, which is apparently a fairly popular fast food. Basically, the idea is to take a baked potato, whip up the insides with some butter and cheese (so far, so good) and then pile on a variety of available toppings. Going all in we load it up with mushrooms, corn, hot dog slices, pickled cabbage, a bit of what looked like macaroni salad, some grainy, brown stuff, hot sauce, and a dill, yogurt sauce. Not wanting to ruin a good thing, we pass on the ketchup and mayonnaise they offer to squeeze on top. We didn’t have our camera with us to take a picture of the actual masterpiece, but I did find a reasonable facsimile on Google.

Contrary to expectations, we find these ingredients don’t actually go that well together, particularly since most of them are cold. Nevertheless, we power through, but I do make sure to save a last bite of just potato to cleanse my palate as much as possible.

In the meantime, the weather has gone full on Seattle, so we head back to the hotel in the rain to plan for another day.