I had an ambitious schedule planned for my final day in Turkey. Being that my internet had once again out, I had no distractions in the morning and headed out fairly early. I had read there were a number of interesting things to see under the bridge between the two European sides of Istanbul so I made my way to the coast. This statement would have been true if by interesting things you mean a row of seafood restaurants.
Although there was not a lot to see under the bridge itself, the views of both sides of the city were quite nice.
As I reached the other side there was a small underground shopping mall that you were forced into before you could reach the street. If you needed a remote control or 'authentic' article of clothing, this was your place.
Once safely on the other side I was greeted by this lovely advert.
I was now heading towards the Galata Tower. This was near the exit of the bridge and involved walking up a large hill surrounded by older looking buildings.
I entered the tower and handed the cashier the amount posted on the board behind him. With ticket in hand I waited for the elevator. When it arrived I tried to enter but was stopped by the elevator attendant who started yelling at me in Turkish and pointing to the other elevator adjacent to it. He let everyone else in. In Turkey there is are two prices for everything. One for Turks and one for foreigners. The Turkish price is usually considerably lower. This attraction was no exception however it also had separate elevators right next to each other going to the exact same place. Depending on which ticket you had you would use a specific elevator. I had apparently been sold the Turkish ticket because they thought I was a local. I waited to enter the Turkish elevator and embraced the 15 Lira I had just saved because of my beard. Once at the top the view was even better than the bridge.
The bridge and tower took considerably less time than I had thought they would so I decided to take a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul.
Once we started to get close to the other side I noticed this balloon in the distance.
I have never been on a balloon and wanted to check this mode of transportation off of my list. Once I got off the boat I was at Haydarpasa Terminal which is the busiest rail terminal in Turkey and the Middle East and one of the busiest in Eastern Europe. It was built in 1909 and was pretty impressive from the outside.
I exited and followed the coast to try and find this balloon. As I walked I passed a large bus 'station' and many food carts and street shops. After around 20 minuets I came upon it.
I walked right up to the ticket counter and asked how much. Only 20 Lira, I was in! I boarded the balloon and waited for it to take me on my journey. As expected, the view from the balloon was spectacular.
It was filled with helium and was held down by a huge steel cable. I kept thinking that if this cable broke, we would pretty much keep going up until we hit space and suffocated. I was a little scared but we ended up making it down untouched. I decided I would now explore the side of Istanbul I had not seen yet.
I ended up stopping in a random restaurant and attempted to order lunch. The guy was very helpful and I eventually ended up with some sort of soup and a rice combo dish with chicken, tomato sauce with beef, and veggies.
It was very good and only cost about $2. It appeared to be a quick meal stop for the working class. After lunch I walked around and found some open markets and shops.
I then made my way to a sweet shop and got 2kg of home made Turkish Delights. If your lucky enough you may get to try them. The people at the shop were also very nice and helpful. I noticed that everyone on this side of Istanbul was much nicer and much more helpful than the European side. It may have just been my few choice encounters but it left a good impression. On the ferry back to the other side of town a few people decided to feed the seagulls while we waited to depart. They proceeded to follow us across the bay. It was quite impressive.
After arriving back in Europe I headed for my last stop of the day; the Egyptian spice market. I was expecting something identical to the Grand Bizarre but it turned out to be one of my favorite stops on the trip. The outside was filled with all sorts of animals, pets, and animal food.
I then ventured into the heart of the market.
There were all sorts of cool things to see and buy. There were spices everywhere that you could purchase in bulk or by the gram.
The whole thing was pretty impressive and I ended up doing most of my shopping here. As I left the market I knew my time in Turkey was coming to an end. I came to terms with this and attempted to determine what my last meal would be. My flight left at 5am so it had to be something that would hold me over to the next day. I had been eying a particular item for a while but never acted on my curiosity. For my final meal I decided to indulge. I present to you, the McTurko.
It consists of a large piece of pita bread filled with two hamburger patties, lettuce, tomato, and barbeque sauce. It was...not very good.
It was also one of the messiest sandwiches I have ever eaten.
It was a fitting end to a wonderfully interesting trip. I will also not miss this at all:
