So this is where I began to fall off the world, the net, my blog, etc.
The Saturday after Halloween was Matthias’ birthday. He decided to celebrate by inviting friends to Tophane, an area in Istanbul with outdoor nargile bars. What’s nargile, I can hear you all say? You may know it as hookah or water pipe. It’s quite a nice setup. You can either sit in booths or opt for the more casual bean bag chairs. I looked around and noticed many people smoking nargile while playing backgammon and drinking tea. We opted for the bean bag chairs with some apple teas. Unfortunately, we found out later that these particular apple teas were made from powder (available from any store, boo). People started trickling off from Tophane around 11pm and a smaller group of us decided to head to Taksim to check out a pub or two for a few hours before heading home around 2am.
Sunday was a beautiful sunny 70F day. Three of us started walking around town just to do some exploring. We ended up taking a small private boat, for giggles, to cross the Haliç (or Golden Horn) River then perused a market (or bazaar). We ended up taking a water ferry (or vapur) from the market to area called Eyüp which is considered a very holy area for Muslims. During out ferry ride, we had some tea and met a couple Canadians spending a few days in Istanbul on their tour of Turkey. They joined us as we explored the area and had some lunch. We took a few wrong turns but a couple of kids guided lead us where we wanted to go. Atop a high hill in Eyüp, there is tea garden called Pierre Loti which boasts a scenic view of Istanbul and the Golden Horn. The five of us had some tea and watched the sunset. I even have some pictures that will eventually get posted, I promise. Instead of walking down the hill we rode the funicular to the bottom then took the vapur home. Overall, it was a great day with my first real venture outside of my neighborhood.
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