Istanbul, Turkey
Turkish Coffee
When in Rome. 😜
Mandabatmaz, Asmalımescit Mahallesi, İstiklal Caddesi, Olivia Geçidi, No 1/A, Beyoğlu
Everywhere we go, the city has a Case of the Mondays. What does that mean? Weird opening hours, closures, you know. And, because it’s the first day of Ramadan, businesses are working a little differently now.
Our original plan was to visit the Istanbul Modern, but it’s closed on Monday. So, we decided to go to the Topkapı Palace (which is closed on Tuesdays, FYI). The Topkapı Palace was the home of Ottoman Sultans and the central seat of power for 400 years. It was built upon the site of Byzantion’s acropolis, occupied by the Byzantine Empire during it’s rule. The Palace has the choicest view of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorous, so even today, it makes a lot of sense why sultans spent their time here.
The Palace grounds are huge and peppered with little exhibitions and caches of priceless treasures. It boasts the one of the largest and most expansive collections of china in the world and the “Pavilion of the Holy Mantle and Holy Relics,” which houses relics of Muhammad, Moses, David, and Joseph. NBD. We saw a plaster footprint of Muhammad and multiple relics of his beard. We saw Moses’s Staff that parted the Red Sea and drowned the entire Egyptian Army. We were speechless.
We thought we had seen everything, but it turns out we missed a lot of other neat things, too. Since arriving in Istanbul, we’ve been reading up on the Ottoman Empire and learning much more about the largesse of this global power we know nothing about from grade school. For this reason, Topkapı Palace was a lot of fun. We’ll have to come back again. Oh yeah, just to take another peek at the Spoonmaker’s Diamond, an 86-carat diamond that has been in the possession of the Ottoman Empire since the 17th century.
The afternoon was reserved for a bit of island adventure on Burgazada, one of the Prince Islands close to the city. We took a public ferry from Kabataş, kicking back to people watch and drink çay, or Turkish tea. We decided to visit Burgazada because Monocle told us to. There was a restaurant that boasted a nice view and good fish. BONUS: the ferry we took was called the “Barış Manço,” after our favorite Turkish singer from the 70s!
Once we got on the island, we walked on foot around the island to the restaurant, stopping occasionally to descend upon short stretches of beach, which we have christened, “Trash Beach.” Though the Prince Islands are famous for being Istanbullus’ summer getaway, it doesn’t seem to be very resort-y. The views of the city were nice, but not much else. Well, there was a weird mix of feral cats, dogs, and ponies on the island - that was cool.
Sure enough, Monocle was right: the view was pristine and the food was pretty tasty. But, we were paying island prices, which always puts us in a bad mood. We recognized many faces from the ferry, so it was clear that you go to Burgazada just to go to this restaurant. When put this together, we knew it was fine to leave. We took an overpriced pony ride down to the ferry dock to get right back to the city.
We watched the sun set from the ferry, marking the end of the first fast of Ramadan. Because we had a pretty early meal, we had room for Second Dinner. We worked up our appetite and walked up the hill to Hayri Usta Ocakbaşi, the awesome kebap place we had dinner our first night in the city. And then, we went to Damla Dondurma for a bite of mastic ice cream. Though we didn’t fast for Ramadan, we ate like we did. When in Rome! 😜
Piss Poor Negroni
That’s not the name of the cocktail. That’s what it was.
Tükkan, Kemankeş Karamustafa Paşa, Mumhane Cd. No:34, Beyoğlu
