Sounds like a good day. How did you get on battling the political rallies? The news here didn't give any indication of riots or mayhem, so it must have all been pretty civilised.
The museum card sounds like a good idea - standing in queues isn't fun.
Winter starts Monday, and the forecast agrees - 10, 12, 12, 11, 11, 14 and minima all zero or below.
I had no problem. Heather caught the train back from the Asian side. It was packed with people for the Kurdish rally (or maybe for both as they were near one another) and to make matters worse she wasn't sure what stop to get off at, and missed the right one, to end up getting off at the next one which was the location of the Kurdish rally. And she was the one who found out everything!
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Poor me- I will freeze when I come back!
The funicular to taksim square was closed when i came back today (i took a pedestrian underpass to the tram which should also have had an exit to the funicular, but both exits were closed so I just ended up on the opposite side of the road) so there may be something happening today. Everyone will be working for the rest of my time here, so there shouldn't be any more problems.
I went to the castle first. The road was full of traffic and there were people everywhere. The cafes were full and several had tables and chairs on the road (they all had stuff on the footpath). This was the major road along the edge of the Bosporus which buses go along every few minutes. Cars were doing uturns all the time. It was bedlam. I went into the castle. I saw ten people the entire time i was there. Consider for a moment that this castle is the reason the Turks conquered Constantinople, and that this weekend is the anniversary.
ReplyDeleteThey are building a mosque in the middle of the ampitheatre, which is completely out of place, but apart from that the castle is amazingly well preserved and is fantastic. They don't let anyone on the stairs for the battlements. If they did, it would be a childs paradise.
As usual I didn't follow the most direct route to the yildiz palace. I elected to stop at the bottom and walk up through the park. As it was built as a hunting lodge the park is enormous (possibly the biggest park in Istanbul). Consequently, finding the palace was somewhat difficult. I found the wrong one - the yildiz chalet palace (used for guests particularly Kaiser Wilhelm and his family). I had a tour (no photos allowed), then the guide took me to the real palace via the short route - which involved going through the technical institute from one end to the other amongst other things! There were only two rooms open so it was a disappointment especially as it was supposed to have the best exhibition of textiles in Istanbul and I counted six textiles.
So I am glad i saw the park and the other palace first. It wasn't even the real palace - just where the lackeys were housed.
After a lot more walking i got home and went to tea with heather at a very good fish resteraunt.
There were lots of bridal parties having their photos taken in the park.
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