True to form, it's taken me a little longer to get around to posting day two of our trip to Turkey. Sorry about that.
Day two essentially revolved around a quest to find one food that we were desperate to try in Turkey - falafel. Whilst Falafel isn't your stereotypical Turkish dish (it isn't on the menu in a lot of the restaurants we visited) we figured that the middle-eastern community would have a few decent restaurants in Istanbul and we just love falafel so we had to go and find the best one.
After some digging online, I discovered Falafel'ci, a small, family run restaurant in the Moda district of Kadıköy so on the morning of day two we jumped on the tram down to Eminönü using our Istanbulkart (a little more on this later) then took a ferry to Kadıköy. The quest begins.
A 30 minute journey to Kadıköy followed and upon our arrival we walked around the bay in the direction of Haydarpasa Train Station.
Haydarpasa was once the busiest rail station in the whole of Turkey but a fire in 2010 which burnt the roof down has now made the station semi-functioning and a lot of trade that once flowed through has now ceased. In the past, it was the origin point of on the Istanbul-Konya-Adana-Aleppo-Baghdad line and the origin of the Istanbul-Ankara route.
Day two essentially revolved around a quest to find one food that we were desperate to try in Turkey - falafel. Whilst Falafel isn't your stereotypical Turkish dish (it isn't on the menu in a lot of the restaurants we visited) we figured that the middle-eastern community would have a few decent restaurants in Istanbul and we just love falafel so we had to go and find the best one.
After some digging online, I discovered Falafel'ci, a small, family run restaurant in the Moda district of Kadıköy so on the morning of day two we jumped on the tram down to Eminönü using our Istanbulkart (a little more on this later) then took a ferry to Kadıköy. The quest begins.
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| Falafel'ci - Not on Google Maps but definitely worth visiting |
Today was our first trip on the ferry and we were both pleasantly surprised in how efficient, cheap and all round awesome they were. There are a number of terminals in Eminönü each labelled in big writing with their destination and an LCD display which tells you when the next ferry is departing. You pay for your jeton and put the token in the barrier to pass or swipe your Istanbulkart to enter the waiting area. Once the ferry arrives, the other passengers exit around the side of the terminal and, once the ferry is clear, you board. For every journey we took on a ferry in Istanbul we always chose to sat facing the sun on one of the sides of the boat (like in the photo above). It was late September when we visited and the warm sun was welcome after we'd started to see the English winter close in at home.
A 30 minute journey to Kadıköy followed and upon our arrival we walked around the bay in the direction of Haydarpasa Train Station.
Haydarpasa was once the busiest rail station in the whole of Turkey but a fire in 2010 which burnt the roof down has now made the station semi-functioning and a lot of trade that once flowed through has now ceased. In the past, it was the origin point of on the Istanbul-Konya-Adana-Aleppo-Baghdad line and the origin of the Istanbul-Ankara route.
Since the fire, the building has been beautifully restored and the ceilings in the waiting hall are stunning.
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| Hydarpasa ceiling |
After exploring the main concourse and the platform area, we double-backed on ourselves and headed in the direction of Moda walking the two or so miles via the coast road.
My girlfriend and I are always keen to explore the places people live in the cities we visit as the "old city" tends to be the "tourist city" and quite often not representative of what a place is actually like. Once we found our way to Moda we both said that this is the place we'd like to live if we were ever to move to Istanbul. It has a really cool vibe about the place and there were plenty of young people about, due to the proximity of Istanbul Kadıköy Lisesi, the local university.
After following the map to we eventually found Falafel'ci and sat on one of the tables outside and waited for our order to be taken. The lady who served us was clearly lovely (and, I think, the owner) but given that we didn't speak Turkish and she didn't speak English, we had a little difficulty in getting our point across! In the end we saw some students next to us who ahd a big plate of falafel with some finely diced salad and beans. Two of those please!
When the food came it really was delicious. Perhaps it wasn't the best falafel I've ever had but it hit the spot and was well worth the walk. We paid the bill (about 13TL for two lunches and a couple of Cokes) then headed back up the hill to get an ice cream for another place I'd scouted in advance - Ali Usta. This stuff blew us away! We're both massive fans of Italian gelato which is completely different to your standard ice cream served in other countries (it's kind of chewy rather than creamy) and this place served gelato almost as nice as what we'd had in Rome last year. The sun was blazing and we sat outside munching ice cream whilst soaking up some rays. Superb.
After finishing the ice cream we headed back down the hill towards the water's edge and found a little café/restaurant called Tariha Moda Iskelesi Restaurant located perfectly on the end of a pier. Again, we sat down, chilled out and enjoyed the late summer sun. I couldn't help but think we'd timed our holidays well this year since we'd enjoyed the best english summer in recent memory, managed to grab these few days in Istanbul and, once the weather really gets cold in the UK, we're flying out to Central America for three weeks in November!
My girlfriend and I are always keen to explore the places people live in the cities we visit as the "old city" tends to be the "tourist city" and quite often not representative of what a place is actually like. Once we found our way to Moda we both said that this is the place we'd like to live if we were ever to move to Istanbul. It has a really cool vibe about the place and there were plenty of young people about, due to the proximity of Istanbul Kadıköy Lisesi, the local university.
After following the map to we eventually found Falafel'ci and sat on one of the tables outside and waited for our order to be taken. The lady who served us was clearly lovely (and, I think, the owner) but given that we didn't speak Turkish and she didn't speak English, we had a little difficulty in getting our point across! In the end we saw some students next to us who ahd a big plate of falafel with some finely diced salad and beans. Two of those please!
When the food came it really was delicious. Perhaps it wasn't the best falafel I've ever had but it hit the spot and was well worth the walk. We paid the bill (about 13TL for two lunches and a couple of Cokes) then headed back up the hill to get an ice cream for another place I'd scouted in advance - Ali Usta. This stuff blew us away! We're both massive fans of Italian gelato which is completely different to your standard ice cream served in other countries (it's kind of chewy rather than creamy) and this place served gelato almost as nice as what we'd had in Rome last year. The sun was blazing and we sat outside munching ice cream whilst soaking up some rays. Superb.
After finishing the ice cream we headed back down the hill towards the water's edge and found a little café/restaurant called Tariha Moda Iskelesi Restaurant located perfectly on the end of a pier. Again, we sat down, chilled out and enjoyed the late summer sun. I couldn't help but think we'd timed our holidays well this year since we'd enjoyed the best english summer in recent memory, managed to grab these few days in Istanbul and, once the weather really gets cold in the UK, we're flying out to Central America for three weeks in November!
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| Summer sun |
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| Tariha Moda Iskelesi Restaurant |
A nice little tip if you visit this café, chuck a little bit of bread in the sea and the fish come swimming right up to the edge and devour it in front of your eyes.
I started to notice Gabi getting a little too comfortable in this (admittedly idyllic) setting and we still had one more sight to see before calling it a day - the view from the hill in Eyüp. So off we set, back towards the ferry terminal and on a ferry bound for Eyüp.
The ferry crossed us back over to the European side of Istanbul and after a 40 minute (or so) journey up the Bosphorous we reached our end destination. By this point it was getting a bit late so we made the decision to take the cable-car up the hill, admire the view then head back within the hour. It was a little bit rushed and, had it not have been so late, I'd have liked to have walked back down the hill through the cemetery but I had a girlfriend to keep on side! ;)
After a quick pitstop to pick up some candy floss (can't resist that stuff) we took the cable car up the hill and admired the view from the top, out across the city. From here it became apparent just how sprawling Istanbul is.
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| The view from Eyüp - the ferry terminal is visible in the background, jutting out before the bridge |
Once we'd taken a few snaps and soaked up the views we headed back down by cablecar and then caught the ferry back towards Eminönü We were sat next to a Turkish man and his wife who bought and extra wafer/marshmallow snack from a vendor and gave it to us, a very kind gesture indeed. The sun began to set on the way home and I managed to catch a few nice snaps of the mosques by night which I always think turn out very well with my Sony TX-5 camera.
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| New mosque by night |
After a short tram journey back up towards Beyazit we reached our hotel, absolutely knackered by this point but I had a trick up my sleeve - a visit to the one of the best restaurants in Istanbul with a view to die for - Imbat Restaurant.
We got there for around 9:30 (we ate very late in Istanbul partly due to us doing so much in the day and wanting an hour to chill out in the room before heading back out again!) and took a table on the roof terrace which has fantastic views across towards Beyoglu and beyond. I forgot my camera but you'll have to take my word for it - it's spectacular. We shared a borek starter to begin with then Gabi had veal whilst I went with a grilled chicken and steak kebab. Both were fantastic - Gabi went as far as to say that it was the best veal she'd ever had which is high praise indeed.
Half way through the mains we felt a few drips of water and noticed lightning in the distance - a storm was brewing! A few less hardened diners elected to move indoors but us tough Brits stayed outside and braved it. Luckily, the heavens only opened once we'd left the restaurant and were browsing a shop on Hudavendigar Cadessi. We sprinted for the tram, took it back up to Beyazit and collapsed on the bed, exhausted. The rain was practically apocalyptic in it's heaviness but by the time we'd woken up, 99% of it had evaporated in the morning sun. Certainly beats Manchester!
Tomorrow would be a trip out to another of Istanbul's districts - Uskudar.
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