Day 5, Friday February 5th 2021 – To Taksim and back

 

We took a day out and headed to the Taksim where we walked and walked, ate some smaller snacks and some special Turkish dessert I can’t remember the name of. Taksim is one of the most famous areas in Istanbul and the area we originally were planning to stay at. After looking around we agreed we prefer Besiktas a bit more.

Snacking time

 

Weather was getting warmer and sun was shining. We headed away from Taksim towards Eminönü. While crossing a bridge we saw long row of people fishing for small fishes they then sold from buckets to passers by.

Lot of fishing done from the bridge

 

We visited the Mısır Çarşısı Bazaar and in the “better” part of it quickly discovered it was for tourists and hence not too nice place to be as immediately we were approached by the merchants wanting to sell us something. This to me is so far closest to those tourist beach resorts I do not like. The outdoor part of the Bazaar was fine and used by locals, but the indoors part was clearly just for tourists.

Bazaar street with locals

While sitting outdoors and eating we witnessed a police drone floating above people. The drone was sending a message about Corona and how to keep distance and so on. Looking around we could see people really were not caring much about the instructions. Even though everybody is wearing masks, the safety distances are quickly forgotten in a Bazaar. 

We continued walking around, visited a hostel we were originally planning to stay at, just to see how it was and then took a bus back to Besiktas. We got messages from Pedro telling us they won't let him to Iraq so we are now wondering where this will lead our brave new friend. Later that night we got some guests, Guy from Hungary with his Turkish girlfriend and Özgür and his girlfriend arrived slightly drunk. We sat together and they told us now there is a curfew and no alcohol will be sold before Monday. The curfew luckily does not apply to tourists, but the alcohol ban applies to everybody. We finished few beers and other drinks and listened to the Turks singing some traditional songs. It was really interesting and cool experience. After some talks and drinks we finally went to sleep. It was an interesting day and I am feeling really happy we are doing this all.