In Istanbul

My first holiday in Turkey (whatever I might tell you about the town and the touristic objectives, probably you already know)

We’ve reached Istanbul at night, by car; no matter how many stories I’ve seen on TV, I’ve never thought we’ll stay 7 hours at the customs at Bulgarian-Turkey border. Ok, I’ve said to myself, the traffic will be lighter. I had no idea what I was talking about. It’s so good they invented google maps and, while the passenger from your right wonders: “Look, it’s so beautiful!”, a feminine voice tells you to go left at the fork. You’re not a real driver until you’ve driven in a huge town and on so narrow climbing streets.

When you choose not to go on the beach at all-inclusive option and want bed and breakfast into the old town at low cost, you may have surprises like: “there is a problem with your room, madam”. The problem was solved, eventually, the managers of the hotels in the old town are friends with each other.

Istanbul city is fascinating. I don’t know what Simone de Beauvoir meant when she wrote this: “Annoyed at not being able to get beneath the décor of the place, we left after three days”. I read this in a book I found in a little bookshelf at the hotel reception. It continued with: “Most others would stay on despite a feeling that they were missing something essential. But it is easier to identify the missing element as the Turkishness of Turkey than to define it”.

We chose to stay into the old town to be close to the main touristic objectives. We left the car in the hotel parking and walked a lot hoping this way we’ll find Simone’s missing element. We might have found it near Galata bridge.

Sources and more:

Discovering Turkey by Andrew Mango, B.T. Batsford Ltd London