DAYS 29-36, MON MARCH 1ST TO SUN MARCH 7TH 2021 – WORLD IS SLOWLY OPENING?

 
So the Corona restrictions were losened somewhat, but the curfew is still on at nights and on Sundays. I am not exactly sure how it is now, but atleast the restaurants are open until 7 p.m. during the week and until 5 p.m. on Saturdays. This is already a huge change to what it used to be. Before it was like this. For Turkish citizens and residents the night curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.,  has been on since November 20th. As of Friday, December 4, Turkish citizens and residents have been subject to a weekend curfew beginning 9 p.m. on Friday, continuing through 5 a.m. on Monday. Travel outside of the house is limited to individuals between the ages of 20 and 65, who are obtaining basic food items, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. In addition to these Turkish citizens and residents age 65 and older are restricted to their place of residence, and only allowed outside between 10:00-13:00. Turkish citizens and residents age 20 and below are only allowed outside during the hours of 13:00-16:00.

We took a Metrobus to Gamze's University. Metrobus is a bit misleading name as some small busses and vans also have the text Metrobus. The actual Metrobus is a long bus that runs on it's own lanes. It is actually pretty practical system, and after the initial confusion we got it.

Metrobus

Private lanes enable the metrobus to be fast transport in the city of traffic jams

Now we dont need to order food home all the time. Just one reminder from home orders is that they send annoying amount of plastic and sometimes stuff you don't know if you can't read turkish. So if you get something you don't know it might be food for pets. The cookies might taste strange, so better to check the content with someone who reads Turkish.

Don't eat these cookies!

With new energy we headed to Taksim and other places. On Wednesday in Taksim we walked for way too long trying to find a good place to eat. Each of us maybe had a different idea for the place so we ended up walking around getting hungry and maybe a bit frustrated. Finally we found a nice reataurant on a side alley with some pretty good food, the roasted chicken was tasty, Adana Kebab was fine and the last dish... no idea what it was called, but it was really good. Atmosphere was also really nice and even though we found the place just before 7 p.m. we were not rushed out, but could take our time eating and having beers.

It was worth to look longer for this place

On Thursday we went for Sushi in our favorite place and it is really different from home delivery. Food looks super nice and sitting outside felt great even if the weather is still quite cold.

Some food porn after all those plastic boxes was super nice

On Friday we headed to Kadiköy and found a rock bar. Having beers in evena normal or basic bar felt great. I felt almost alive after sitting home for so long. Surrounded by people and good music felt great. After beers we found a small restaurant selling traditional Turkish foods and took some tavuklu pirinç pilavı, a rice dish with chicken on top. The dish is super simple, but pretty good tasting.

Gamze likes :)

On Saturday we were back to Kadiköy again, but this time looking for the traditional Turkish breakfast. While walking I saw the first US oldtimer car in Istanbul. I would not dare to drive here, but some seem brave enough.

Some oldtimers here atleast

Our luck was not good as first of all the restaurant we wanted to go to near Moda Park was not open and the nearby restaurants were full. And of course soon after I stepped on dog shit.. As there are lot of dogs living on streets this was about to happen at some point.. still.. well after cleaning my shoe we went walking and finally found a place. It is pretty cool here that many restaurants look small and nothing special from outside, but have large space inside, in basement or at backyard. This time we found ourselves in the backyard of a small restaurant. Again the group was quite international having people from India, Poland, Brazil, Germany and Finland, No matter where you are, everybody seems to like the breakfast.

First real Turkish breakfast

As the week was closing to it's end I got some good luck and finally got in touch with some local Turbojugends. For those who don't know Turbojugend is a fan club for Norwegian rock band Turbonegro and I am a member of our chapter in Oulu Finland. The cool thing about these clubs is that there are Turbojugend clubs almost everywhere in the world full of friendly rock people ready to show you around and take you to the best rock bars. This time it happened so that the local club president has his own bar. I had found one TJ Istanbul member from internet and was chatting with him, not even knowing if the person was a man or a woman. Anyways he told us the address of the bar and we agreed to meet there. The Wall Taksim was pretty easy to find even though the door was not the most visible. As it happens we actually missed it first, but the I noticed someone on the 2nd floor window waving at me. I showend the back of my TJ jacket to him and he waved me in.

Finally a real rock bar!!!

We found ourselves inside a cool looking rock bar and were greeted by a guy who introduced himself as the owner and the president of the local Turbojugend. Funny thing was they actually did not know I was coming and one employee just happened to see my jacket on the street. The guy I had been in contact with arrived only later when we had already got to know the president a little.. and had few beers also already.. Night was fun, but short as the curfew forced us the leave early. Anyways it was great to have some beers and listen to good music with likeminded people. I found out one common friend from ST Petersburg had been there just 10 days before, but sadly I missed him.. well maybe another time.. The week ended in a nice tune, I hope I get to meet these guys again