Day 7, Sunday February 7th 2021 – Is there is no way out of this park?

 After eating some Korean food we went to see a nearby Yıldız Park. What we did not know was the park was mostly closed. There were only 2 gates open and all the services, café’s toilets etc were closed. By accident we did end up at the other open gate and after clearing with the gate security that we are tourist we were let in. The park rose along a quite steep hill. Along the path there were places to stop and sit, playgrounds for children and all the way up the quite high elevation a closed restaurant. All the way walking up we noticed lot of street dogs.

Why are you bothering me, said the dog...

Bravely, but thirsty we continued all the way up to find the closed café and the closed gates. What now? A police in a parked police car told us the gates are closed, and the closest open one is some 500m away. We headed that way starting to feel tired and bored.

Our happy campers climbing the hill

After some discussing and map reading we found a way out of there, but now on totally opposite side of the park. It took lot more walking to circle the park and end up finally passing the gate we got in the first place. from there we headed back to Besiktas. Luckily we did find some water and ice cream to buy on the way. The drinking water here btw is a bit unclear thing. I was told the tap water is nowadays drinkable, but as it was not the case previously, the locals are still suspicious of it and prefer bottled water. This again is a problem as there is no recycling here at all. All the trash it put to the same bin. It really feels wrong to me not to separate the trash, but there is not much to do about it. I also have my doubts about the tap water so I don't drink it or use it for coffee etc.