Saturday, September 21, 2013

Asia calling




Asia in the background. This was taken at a
reception at Bahceshir University
sponsored by Meg's group.
Wine and appetizers.
Meg thought it to be cool to set foot on four continents within a week, and we set out to accomplish this on Friday, our last full day in Istanbul. Across the Bosphorous River, a short Ferry ride from the Eminonu, lay the Asian side of Istanbul. The same Metro card used for land transportation is used for the ferry. Over  a quarter million people use the service daily to get to jobs in the European section, and return. The ferry from Eminonu runs every twenty minutes. All we wanted to do was cross over. The word "No" came in handy at the ferry station. There were people all over the place attempting to sell us a tour of the river for 35 Lira. "No, we just want to cross over" and someone directed us to the right wharf for that. Still we were dogged with tour offers. "No, no, no..."
We found the queue for the ferry to Kadikoy, and the tour book was correct; people push hard to get to the front. Fortunately, it was not rush hour. In about fifteen minutes, we were in Asia. 
I went into a tourist information kiosk, and was directed to the town shopping area, just up the street.

Street scenes in Kadikoy 






I took these pictures to give a flavor of this part of Istanbul. Istanbul is 99% Muslim, and probably 60% Western. The ads in the background of these photos definitely have a Western appeal. I found this to be an odd conflict, produced by Turkey's relentless pursuit to join the European community, and yet retain its ancient Muslim heritage.
Often on the street, there are shoe shine stands, a lost occupation here in the US. My father used to shine shoes in his father's barber shop in the 1920s. In Turkey, it is still a living.
The down town of Kadikoy reminds me of old down town Troy, NY except the buildings are taller and the streets a little narrower. There were no department stores as we know them, but plenty of shops where you could get what you wanted- clothing, jewelry, knickknacks, children's items. All in all, Asia was a pleasant experience going back in time only a few years. I know there is more to Asia than Istanbul, and it would be different. Some year, I hope to check out the rest of it.
We became very confident of our ability to navigate the waters and the land transportation that we took the ferry to a different location on return. We went to the Kabatas wharf, and then had only one Metro stop to Taksim square, where it continued to be sunny and cheerful.


European Istanbul from return ferry
more to come....



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