Feribot!

This was my fourth and Sarah's third trip to Istanbul.  One of the best things about revisiting a place is that you've already done all the "must do" sightseeing things and you can approach the place with a more relaxed attitude.  Another is that (even if it takes a few visits with a huge place like Istanbul) you have a good handle on the geography and can nail down the place to stay that best fits you and your plans.

To this end we decided to stay in Üsküdar, a busy neighbourhood on the eastern (Asian) side of the Bosphorus.  This meant that we took the ferry an average of twice a day during our five days there. This was entirely according to plan, as not only are they an inexperienced and quick way to get around (no traffic jams on the water), but they're just a fun and beautiful way to see the city.  One morning a big pod of dozens of dolphins swam and jumped past during our crossing. On our final day we even took one ferry southwest across to the European shore then immediately hopped on another one headed southeast instead of taking a bus or Dolmus straight south down the Asian shore.

As for new explorations, we made several fun new discoveries.  Some of these were things I can't believe I'd missed before (e.g. the Istanbul University campus and its dramatic fire-watchtower) and others were things that would be easy to miss but we'd caught just in time (e.g. a beautiful, if slightly rundown, neighbourhood sitting between the Grand Bazaar and the Golden Horn that was already partially demolished with the rest looking like it would be following soon.

We spent more time right down on the water in the pleasant new park along the Golden Horn and along the still traffic-clogged and view-less Bosphorus shore north of it.  

Food and drink wise, we had a few highlights. One day was devoted to visiting some of the small number of brewpubs in Istanbul.  For a city its size, it's a ways behind the curve. If my research was correct, Wellington has roughly one hundred times as many brewpubs per capita as Istanbul.  But to their credit, the ones they've got do a respectable, if not flashy, job, preparing fault-free IPAs using inexpensive (and thus not terribly exciting) hops, decent witbiers and notably good dry stouts.

On the brewery day we also had a fun time drinking coffees in the partial shadow of a giant sundial surrounded by kitties.

And we had some really good köfte (meatballs) with bean salad in an ancient-looking restaurant in the spice bazaar just above the Golden Horn.

A repeat visit may free you from the compulsion to visit some tourist attractions.  But especially in a place like Istanbul there are some places that just demand a repeat visit.  Foremost among these is Aya/Hagia Sophia. I've written before that it is my favourite building in the world and it remains the reigning champion.  Despite the crowds (which still can't come close to filling the magically spacious, 1500 year-old cathedral) it still held its magnificent sense of space.  This was also despite the scaffolding… In my four visits to Aya Sofia over a period of fifteen ears, there has only been one where there wasn't massive floor-to-ceiling scaffolding set up under some portion of the main dome.

Interestingly, the almost equally wonderful Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) that faces Aya Sofia across a large plaza was also under renovation, but of a much larger scale.  We popped in for a visit just after prayers and were surprised to discover that an artificial ceiling meant that almost none of its huge columns or beautiful tiles were visible.  It would have been disappointing if this had been our only chance to see it!)

Our final day in Istanbul was spent visiting a couple of friends, new and old.  The first was an Airbnb host who'd had to cancel our reservation a week or so previously after some "disagreements" with local officials.  He'd asked us to cancel the booking so it wouldn't show up on his listing, but assured us he'd meet us for coffee and pay us the Airbnb cancellation in person after we arrived.  This all smelt like a scam, but he'd been tremendously nice and helpful up to this point, and I couldn't see any way that it could be. And as it turned out he was completely on the up and up, just as friendly and helpful as ever and treated us to a coffee and a tea as well as paying us back (if you're looking for a medium term place to stay in Istanbul, let me know and I'll pass on his details!)

Our old friend was Sinem, who we'd stayed with during our last visit to Istanbul.  We'd just managed to make time to catch up on our final day, but we had a really fun time all the same. She and her cousin were going to get matching tattoos in Kadikoy and we headed down to meet them.  After the (short, simple) tattoo session was done we went out for a yummy lunch of burgers and spent a good couple of hours catching up on what we'd all been doing over the past seven years. After lunch we swung by a speciality bottle store and picked up a few Turkish craft beers to sip in a park overlooking the Bosphorus as the sun slowly made its way down towards the horizon.  We seem to get along really well with Sinem, and it was great to hear about recent events in her life, both happy and sad, to talk lots about travel (the tattoo she and her cousin got that day was a travel inspired one) and to talk about all of our plans for the future. Next time we're back in Turkey we will have to make sure we get to spend more time together (hopefully at her Boutique hotel in Imbros!)

Sinem and her cousin walked us back down through Kadikoy, which had gone from busy to positively thronging with life.  We had a bit of nervousness as we started to worry about whether we had left enough time to get to the airport (and whether we had enough Lira left over to pay for the trip).  But we had enough time for goodbye hugs, and were sent on our way with smiles, snacks that her cousin insisted on buying for us and, of course, one leftover beer from the bottle shop for the airport.