This morning we awoke to find that Mark was not feeling well at all. Since the morning destination of a museum was on tap, Mark decided to sit this one out and we would regroup at lunch to see how he was feeling and what if anything he would be up for doing.
We headed over to the
Istanbul Archeology Museum. This is an enormous museum, if I were here alone I would have spent the day here, we didn't even make it into the third building. It was the beginning in understanding and learning about the history and culture of Turkey. Here we got to see a part of the actual chain that was draped across the Golden Horn to prevent invaders from boating through, but Constantinople was defeated when ships were taken over land to get around it (more on this when photos are up...)
Mark met up with us at lunch, not able to really eat anything without feeling sick and just was not up to the long day of trekking across town that was planned. Mark stayed behind. Two more of our party decided to stay behind to do their own thing and I asked them to check in with Mark later in the afternoon or for dinner in case he was feeling more like himself and wanted to get out. Mark later laid a huge guilt trip on me for not staying behind with him, but he would have wanted me out of the hotel room anyway :) He had us all worried, we even made a stop to an
eczane to pick up a thermometer, just so we could make sure of his temp.
After lunch we walked down to the waters of the Bosphorus and crossed the Galata bridge, to the Beyoğlu section of town. This bridge spans over the natural harbor that divides the city, so called the Golden Horn, with the Bosphorus connecting north to the Black sea and the Sea of Marmara spread out to the south. Here we climbed Galata Tower, well, actually, they don't let people climb all the stairs, we took the lift to the "7th" floor and then took the spiral staircase up two more flights to the outer deck for a panoramic view of Istanbul. We were on Thrace, the name for the small percentage of the country that is on the European continent, we had a spectacular view of the edge of the country that is mostly a part of the Asian continent. The view back across the bridge we were graced with the famous skyline of Istanbul, highlighted and pierced by the minarets of mosques.
We meandered our way through Beyoğlu making our way along Istikalal Cad, lined with European embassy buildings and tucked away hidden Christian churches. There were plenty of shops and restaurants, on the way up the street we stopped to share in some dessert involving a decadent heaping pile of profiteroles topped with a chocolate pudding sauce. It was rich without being too sweet.
We walked further to Taksim parki and waited to meet up with a highschool friend of Gün's, people watching while we waited. We paused for tea on the Bosphorus water's edge near Dolmabahçe Palace.
Çay again served in those simple tulip shaped glasses and a snack of
tost the Turkish version of grilled cheese.
On the way back from Taksim we walked back down Istikalal Caddesi and found a place for dinner where we enjoyed
manti, the marble sized meat ravioli served with a warm garlic yogurt sauce and
g