Return to Istanbul

I'm sorry to say that I won't be showing you photos of any of the main attractions in Istanbul like Topkapi or The Blue Mosque or any of those important sites. Because we haven't gone to any of them. 

We hit 'em all on our last trip, and are just not as interested in seeing them again. So you'll just have to come to Istanbul to see them for yourself. It's totally worth it.

That being said, we have seen some other cool things, and I continue to love Istanbul, the more time I spend here. So I was happy to return for a few days, and discover a new neighborhood. 

We were lucky that Jim just happened to have another passport, his Irish one, that I helped him obtain years ago. Because he had to leave his US passport behind in Istanbul in order to get his Russian VISA. And without a passport we could not have taken our trip to Antalya. So that is why we are back in Istanbul to ( hopefully) retrieve  his passport with a new Russian VISA.

Success! 

So we had some time for fun! Our new neighborhood, Topani /Karakoy was just down the hill from our old neighborhood,and right near the sea . But they were worlds apart. 

Karakoy is a pretty hip place, probably too hip for the likes of us, but it was fun to see. 

Our hotel was in a great location, just steps away from a tram stop, and was beautifully appointed, if cozy. Pretty perfect in every way, and more upscale than most of the places we have stayed.

This was the view from our window. Perfect, as long as you don't mind hearing the very loud muezzin calling the faithful to prayer- beginning at 5 am. The first morning it startled me, but I guess I am becoming accustomed to Turkey because I slept through it the next couple of days. 

The second day back we walked up the steep hill to discover the Chainghir neighborhood, on a friends recommendation. While wandering around looking at cool coffee shops and thrift stores, we came upon a film crew, and Jim stopped to watch. After a few minutes, they came up to him and asked if he would mind being on the set as a man drinking tea , reading a newspaper. Well, heck yeah! 

The guy on the left us the actual actor, but Jim did a very good job sitting patiently pretending to read a Turkish newspaper for almost an hour as they did take after take...after they were done they shook his hand and whisked the newspaper away.

He's sure that somebody is gonna say " we need that guy who was reading the paper", and his career will be launched. 

We went around the corner and had a great Turkish breakfast.