Istanbul - from the Galata tower to Ominonu..

04.07.2015

My next to last day in Istanbul and it is time to do the tourist thing, so I head to one of the must do things, which is the Galata Tower. It is a medieval stone building, built in 1348, and is a good place to look down on Istanbul and take photos, if you have a stomach for heights. It is quite pricey for Istanbul, at about $12.50 for a few minutes at the top, but it is worth it for the small thrill of standing on a narrow ledge hundreds of feet in the air ( and at least you don't have to bunjy jump from it ) A ten minute queue and then a lift ride followed by a narrow stair climb and you step out onto an exposed narrow ledge ( of course it has a chest high handrail to stop you falling off ). If you were there alone, it would only take a minute to walk around the tower back to the entry/exit door, but one of the problems is selfies, and another is people not being able to read signs. The flow around the top comes to a standstill when people stop to take selfies because they block up the narrow ledge while they take the time to find the best view and the best pose. This happened a lot. Also when you stepped out on the balcony there was a sign in 3 languages and an arrow indicating a clockwise direction to go around the tower. Half the people followed the sign and half the people went in an anticlockwise direction around the tower. Squeezing past groups of people on a narrow section of the ledge caused some issues, especially if you were lined up to take a photo and got pushed out of your place at the rail while a huge sumo wrestler/weightlifter type tried to squeeze past. I think he didn't speak English or at least didn't understand the term ' arsehole', otherwise I might not be here to tell the story. The next part of my day was going to be a two hour ferry trip up the Bosphorus Straits and back, but to get to the ferry I had to negotiate my way down some steep narrow hilly lanes and cross the Golden Horn estuary by the Galata Bridge. Istanbul is like many cities in that it is built on a series of hills and ridges and valleys. Walking up or down steep hills is not in my opinion one of life's little pleasures ( I think it was my cousin in law Steve who said to me " I don't do hills", and I totally agree with those words) So why is it that I always seem to find myself climbing up or climbing down bloody steep hills (rhetorical question) Life can be challenging. Anyway I got to the bottom and started across the bridge enjoying the sight of dozens of men (no women?) holding a fishing pole over the rails. I'm not sure what the point of it is because I didn't see anything being caught, only a plastic pail or two carrying what I assumed were bait fish ( only 3 or 4 inches long). At the end of the bridge was the Ominonu square ( a meeting place and transport terminus for buses and trains coming into the city from other towns ) It is also the favourite place to buy and taste the famous grilled fish sandwich (balik ekmek) known all over Turkey, and now sold only from three boats at Ominonu. The whole square had a very strong fishy smell about it, and people were queueing up to buy one. I would have but I read some reviews on different sites complaining about how smelly and boney the fish was. They use small fish like mackerel and cut the head and tail off but the spine and other bones are left in. To drink with your fish in a bun they have a couple of Turkish specialities which I have tried and not developed a taste for. One is a thinned out runny salty yoghurt which was good for countering very strong hot pickled peppers I ate at one meal, but didn't enjoy that much. The other is a reddish liquid made from turnips. It was like drinking cider vinegar and after one sip I couldn't continue drinking it. But at least I tried them. Soon it was time for my 2 hour cruise, which was a steal at $6....that will be my next blog

Galata tower..a what symbol??