At last, it was finally Thursday, the day I knew Bill would be finishing work early, and we could go to Taksim and see a more tourist friendly area of Istanbul. My friend Elaine and I stayed in Taksim when we visited Istanbul in 1996. We spent our first night in Aksaray, which is on the Asian side of Istanbul. That was where our bus from Armenia dropped us off, and we were too exhausted to look for a hotel on the European side. Then, after a night of rest, we moved to Taksim, which is a bit more modern. I didn’t know any of this when Elaine and I went there. She had done the research.

I remembered Taksim, and told Bill we should head there on Thursday. If anything, I could see Istiklal Avenue– the big shopping street I spent a lot of time on, back in 1996. I have a photo from our visit in 1996… and now I have one from 2025. I will post them both, so you can see the differences 29 years away makes! For now, here’s a 35 second video I made of life on Istiklal Avenue. It’s VERY busy… And yet, it was also so familiar, as Elaine and I stayed at Hotel Avrupa, cheap lodging not too far from this bustling area when we visited in 1996. I wish Bill and I could have stayed there last week, because it is a much better area for seeing the city.

Bill got back to the hotel at around noon. We made our way to the metro station, which was a short walk from the Hilton Istanbul Maslak. Once again, I was struck by how crowded the area was, as the station teemed with people and noise. I am pretty sure Elaine and I used the metro when we visited Istanbul in 1996, but my mind has probably blanked out actual memories of it.

It’s super easy to use the metro in Istanbul. It’s clean and cheap. In fact, even the ticket machine is easy to use, with an English option that talks to you with a empathetic sounding female American voice, reassuring you that your purchase has been successful. Bill bought us tickets good for three rides. I think it cost the Turkish Lira equivalent of about $4. Below are a couple of photos I took in the metro station while Bill was getting his bearings.

The train we got on was pretty full. We stood for the entire journey to Taksim, which was about six stops away. I got a kick out of the signs stuck to the windows, letting riders know that manspreading is not allowed!

Once we got to Taksim, I heard the familiar sounds of a busker, who was skillfully playing a qanun. I didn’t manage to get a clip of him, but below is a video of someone playing a qanun beautifully in an Istanbul metro station.

I wish I could have taken a moment to listen longer to the busker, but the station was very crowded and busy, and we were kind of pushed out of there. Besides, I wanted to see if Taksim was how I remembered it. Below are some photos…

By the time we walked around a bit in Taksim, I was pretty hungry. I paused for just a second near a restaurant and suddenly found myself being harassed by a very aggressive barker. He kept trying to talk to me, trying to entice me to his restaurant. He begged, “Lady, lady… speak to me. Which language?” He tried German, Spanish, English, and French. I cast a dour look at him and walked away. I don’t like it when random people aggressively accost me, trying to score business. It’s a sure sign what they’re selling is likely to suck.

A couple of minutes later, I stopped at another restaurant called Wama’s. They had a large, colorful menu that offered all kinds of food– everything from pasta to tacos! And when I approached, the proprietor was calm and welcoming, so we went in and enjoyed a lovely meal. I had a crispy chicken salad with apples, beets, corn, greens, and tomatoes, and Bill had beef kofre with fries, hummus, and yogurt. My salad was huge and excellent, while Bill said his beef was good, but a little bit “processed”, like it came from a preformed patty. Still, it was a nice lunch. I washed mine down with orange juice, while Bill had a ginger lemonade. I really like the many fruit juices one can enjoy in Turkey!

I went upstairs to use the ladies room and was amused to find that there was a prayer room offered. Actually, many of the places we visited had prayer rooms, including our hotel. On the airplane, there was even an arrow on the entertainment system pointing in the direction of Mecca. I didn’t see an arrow in our hotel room, as I did when we stayed at the Jumeirah Hotel in Frankfurt (which is now a Marriott), but Bill said it might have been in one of the bed stand drawers.

After lunch, we decided to visit the Church of Sant’Antonio da Padova on Istiklal Avenue. I got some photos of the inside, which was full of people doing the same. I’m sure this church was there in 1996, but I swear I don’t remember it…

We decided to head back the other way down the avenue, as I wanted to change directions and walk toward the Bosphorus Strait, which divides the European and Asian sides of Istanbul, as well as the Black Sea from the Sea of Marmara. I thought I remembered the way, and I kind of did… but we still ended up in a part of town that was unfamiliar. Below are some more photos of the big shopping street, as well as a comparison of views from 1996 and 2025…

1996 vs 2025… I wasn’t standing in exactly the same spot last week, but if you look closely, you can see some of the same buildings. Wendy’s hasn’t been in Turkey since 1998!

Once we got to the end of Istiklal Avenue, we turned right, and walked almost all the way down a street, passing signs for the Aga Hamami, which is the oldest hamam in Istanbul. It was constructed in 1454! My back was killing me, so I kind of wished we could pay a visit. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time. As we were walking, the Taksim area faded into a residential area, and we were going downhill on uneven pavement. My back was really aching and I was getting a little tired and cranky.

I told Bill that we should plan to take a taxi back to the hotel. He was a bit dismayed, but I said that unless we found a metro station close to where we ended up, I was probably going to run out of steam. I couldn’t see us walking back to the Taksim station, which was by that point a few miles away! So he reluctantly agreed, as I passed him the many euros he gave me the last time he had to go TDY without me. I never spend all the money he gives me for groceries when he goes out of town, and I usually end up giving it all back to him! 🤭 Then I said we could keep walking if he wanted, because there was a lot more to see…

We followed a couple of Turkish guys into a complex that was some kind of museum for the arts, where we got a view of the Galata Tower. But then we were on a very busy street that led to an even busier street near the museum of modern art and the cruise port. That area was definitely very posh and not at all like Maslak! It was near the museum where I found a much needed park bench. It was good that we found that, not just because my back needed a rest, but also because we were soon in for a really interesting spectacle.

I heard the sounds of many birds, which mostly turned out to be seagulls. A man was feeding them, and hundreds of the hungry birds converged on the square near the museum and mosque. It was fascinating to watch, as seagulls played tug of war over food, and a couple of cats tried to get in on the action! Another man, who was off camera, was literally feeding other birds by hand. I got some video footage and a lot of photos, only a few of which I shared below.

We finally got bored with the birds and decided to walk closer to the water. We passed the very expensive Peninsula Hotel Istanbul, which I noticed also had a metal detector and x-ray scanner in the lobby. Then I heard an infectious percussive beat. Some young man was busking, playing a mean rhythm while other men fished, and people walked around… I noticed he was making lots of lira from appreciative tourists.

I got some photos of the Bosphorus Strait, noticing that across the water, there was a whole lot more of Istanbul to see… and sadly, my middle aged body wasn’t having it. We noticed a taxi stand near the cruise port, and decided to head toward there. It was a good thing, too, because Bill was starting to feel the urge to whiz…

When Bill asked a cabbie how much the ride to Maslak was going to be, he said 35 euros. For some reason, the cabbies prefer euros to Turkish money… 😉 (of course I know why– it’s a more stable currency). We started the rush hour ride back to Maslak. It was about 13 kilometers, but it took an hour! The metro probably would have been faster, but we would have had to walk to one, which would have taken time and energy we couldn’t spare. The cab ride turned out to be fortuitous, because I got more photos, and the cabbie entertained us by using Google Translate to communicate. He didn’t speak English, so he typed his Turkish comments into Google and showed us the translations. It was pretty funny!

The cab ride also gave me a perspective of just how loud, crowded, and busy Istanbul really is. It’s a HUGE city, bustling with energy and action, and unless you have a lot of time and stamina, it’s hard to really do it justice. But the cab ride ended up being more expensive, because we were in traffic for so long. Bill gave the guy 60 euros, when all was said and done… and yes, that is probably more than he needed to, but we felt sorry for the cab driver. It was a long way from the cruise port, and we basically crawled back in very heavy gridlock traffic! I’m sure he missed out on easier fares.

Once we got back to the hotel for our last night, we decided to have one more drink at the bar. I noticed they’d put up even more Christmas decorations and fenced off the big tree in the foyer. I also got a kick out of the fake presents that were kind of poorly wrapped. I don’t know much about Turkish customs, but I do remember giving my former Armenian student a birthday gift. He was amused because I had wrapped it in pretty paper. I don’t know that gift wrapping is a “thing” that part of the world. Since most Turks are Muslims, I’m sure it’s not there, either.

As I enjoyed a Hendricks gin and tonic, properly garnished with cucumber, one of Bill’s colleagues showed up. We were talking about other parts of Turkey we’d seen. Bill hasn’t been to those parts yet, but I’ll bet he’ll get the chance. Now that he’s been there, I think he would like to go back. He did tell me that it would have been permissible to stay in a different part of Istanbul, so if we’d been able to find a hotel in his budget in Taksim, we could have stayed there. That’s good to know, in case we get the chance to go back there.

Bill’s co-worker said he was going to take an early flight back to Germany. He reminded me of the traffic woes, so I told Bill that we should probably leave the hotel several hours before we needed to board the plane. After the crawl back to the hotel on Thursday, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to be safe. Because as much as I enjoyed our trip to Turkey, I was ready to go home to Germany and see my dogs!

One more post ought to do it for the blow by blow, and then I’ll do my ten things I learned post. Stay tuned!