On Tuesday I had to go to European side of İstanbul to take care of some business, and do some shopping. I took so many photos, so decided to write about it under promenade category too.

I went to Kadıköy by my car and parked at one otopark behind the PTT (post office). Then walked to the dock to take a boat-ship to the Eminönü.

Here, while I was walking to the entrance of the dock I took this photo. Weather was beautiful, like a spring day. I love spring, because weather is usually sunny and cool. I don’t like hot so much, maybe because I worked more than 26 years in IT rooms with some good air conditioning:)

I took one ship from the other side of the dock, to go to Eminönü. The one in the picture goes to Karaköy. Karaköy is close to Eminönü. They are connected with two bridges. Because each at one side of the Golden Horn.

 

At last I was in the boat, I usually sit at open place at back side of second floor, even it is cold, raining or snowing does not matter. I like to be open place.  Lately, I love to take photos from there. Once a woman came by me and began to talk English, she thought I was a foreigner and taking photos.  I understood that she was also Turkish and told her I’m Turkish too. We had a small chat over there.

This time there were many people feeding seagulls with simit. Simit is like a bagel more then pretzel, click here and watch how its cooked🙂

Seagulls!! I think they are some kind of mascot of İstanbul. You can see them mostly around boats. I took some videos too, let me share a few here. Seagulls following boat – İstanbul a few more video following it. Here is one to show you how we are feeding them Feeding Seagulls hehe:) some catches on the air and then plunge in the sea to soften that they can eat. As you may see on other videos they are intelligent animals. I love them.. Beautiful bird in white!

hehe:)) I’m off the topic again!! But there is a small child with his granddad feeding the birds too. And also there were many more people..

 

 

 

 

 

Another ship passed by, it was going to the dock we moved.

 

 

 

And we were moving!! Here is the old city area.. you may see mosques and  Topkapı Palace.

After taking a few photo from the left side of the boat I moved to right side to take the Bosphorus Bridge photos. It was nice to see small fisher boats at the entrance. It was many, so I thought to eat fish & bread 🙂  Now, I need to take some break, because I need to work on some more photos so I can add here.

Today 28th of December, 2013 just returned back home and keep writing the blog. Yesterday I worked on some photos so, can share it here. but first let me read to see where was I 🙂

Okay, after videoing seagulls and small fisher boats we were slowly getting closer to Eminönü dock. In front of it there was Karaköy with its dock. Tourist ships mostly dock there.Here there was one on the photo at left.

Towards Eminönü, meaning towards to the left after Karaköy you may see the Galata tower. From the top balcony of the tower you may see İstanbul. It is beautiful during day and also during night. I took a few photos of it. The first one is a bit far.  But at second one a bit closer, since we were getting closer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tower was built in wooden at 507 AD. Then Genoese were built at 1384 and it has 9 floors now. There is an elevator inside that you can go to 7th floor. To reach the top floor you need to walk through wooden stairs. And they are serving food too at top floor. You can have breakfast or dinner. At dinner they do have some nice show which includes a nice belly dancer 🙂 I advise men do not forget to put some money at her bras :))) Yes, Turkish men usually do that, it is our custom.

Let me give you an idea that how you may see İstanbul from top floor of Galata Tower;  http://www.3dmekanlar.com/tr/galata-kulesi.html

Then we moved slowly to the opening of Golden Horn. Actually there is Galata bridge over there which connects both sides of Golden Horn. Now we have a new bridge just next of it too.

We were slowly getting closer to dock. Mosques at Eminönü were looking so good. I made my mind to stop by New Mosque again.

When I turn my head and look at my front I saw Galata tower again and was able to catch it with a flying seagulls 🙂

 

Anyway, we were getting closer to the Eminönü dock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was time to get out from the boat after docking. As usual it was so crowded.

After passing through underpass I faced up with New Mosque. I kept walking towards.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow (Dec 29, 2013) I will keep write about new Mosque.

It was began to build in 1597 with the order of Sultana Safiye who was the wife of Sultan Murad III and the mother of Sultan Mehmed III. It was completed in between 1660-1665. And it was one of the mosques commissioned by Ottoman Empire.

The architects were Davut Ağa, Dalgıç Ahmed Çavuş, Mustafa Ağa.

Wikipeida has more information about the New Mosque..

New mosque has courtyard – in Turkish avlu. I took some photos of courtyard. And there is a fountain in the middle to clean up before praying or namaz. It is used by men though not by women. For women mosque has closed area. Hhmm.. I must picture that too. I never use it, I clean or wash up at home and then go to mosque 🙂 I mostly pray at home, I love to pray at home.

Okay, at the entrance of the mosque there was an old woman with her walking stick asking for money. She came near and asked help from me too. I most of the time don’t give money to those people, because I never know the truth, if they really is in need. Most of the time they lie. But this time I said to her that I would see her while leaving the mosque.

Then, after getting a plastic bag and placing my shoes in it then scarfing my head I found myself inside of the mosque.

Like many other Ottoman imperial mosques, on the 4 corners where the dome meets the pillars holding it up, are calligraphic plates with the names of the first four khalifahs, Abu Bakr,Umar, Uthman, and Ali.

New Mosque- Yeni Cami for me is one of the glamorous mosques in İstanbul. Maybe because of its fabulous dome and the colors they used on tiles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At mosques we are having some place for women. Women pray at separate place in the mosque, because while praying we bend over. Then men behind us may lost their mind out of praying. No one want that to happen so we women are praying at separate close place. I found this as punishment, but why? It is not our fault. To be a woman is not our fault is it? Or is it a fault?

So, most of the time I open my hands on feet at open area and pray. After feeling much better I left the mosque. I wore my shoes back and trow the plastic bag into trash. And I looked for the old woman whom I promised to help. I’m glad that I found her before she left because security was forcing her to leave. I was feeling much better after keeping up with my promise..

Out side of the New mosque is also full of action 🙂 You may see some people are gathering there, some were shopping, some eating some were feeding birds – doves mainly. We are a country loves animals. 

Many birds made a line on the mosque wall. I think I must carry and learn about photo machines too 🙂 Sometimes I’m really thinking about it, this was one that moments.

I am doing some shopping too, whenever I come here. this time I’m short on food for breakfast. I know there are shops at the right side of Spice Bazaar. I did not get in this time, to show you the Spice Bazaar. I have some videos in my promenade playlist, if you wonder about the bazaar watch this video I took inside of the bazaar.

Let’s return back to my shopping 🙂 As breakfast food here in Turkey we are having any kind of cheese, salami, many type of sausages, butter, jam, many type of olives, Sucuk and Pastırma.

So, I bought kashar cheese, feta cheese, tulum – special cheese made in the skin of sheep at Erzincan – aka my father’s birth place :)) –  Turkey. And of course some pastırma and one sucuk. Well I left with 2 bags in hand 🙂 that woman on the left is not me 🙂

Walked through underpass again.. I was hungry and I was heading to fish&bread boats.. I love to eat fish&bread whenever I come here. It is cheap and healthy. but this year its price raised 1/5 ( %20). It was 5TL, and end of the year it costs 6TL.

There is a possibility to sit while eating.. It is always crowded like that. and therefore there is always fresh fish. Yes, fish comes from fish farms, but they are fresh.

Her at right you can see how they cook it. They do not use any oil, on hot thin plate they cook the fish. With some salad and onion they serve it in bread.

On the left you can see how the boat looks like.

Okay, I was full 🙂 so I would like to walk through the Galata Bridge and go to Karaköy.

I took some more photos while walking there. Let me tell you that is an old bridge which was first built in 6th century during the reign of Justinian the Great. Even Leonardo da Vinci draw the Golden Horn Bridge to connect both sides of Golden horn. That bridge was built in Oslo, Norway by Vebjørn Sand. This is great!! while writing I’m learning a lot!!

But I wanted to walk from other side of the bridge so I could take photos of fishermen. After passing under it I was at the other side. As soon as I walked  through steps I was on the bridge. When I turn back I saw New Mosque. After taking a shoot birds were between its minarets. So I took another one.. 

After a few steps, I saw a boat at the dock at Sirkeci, Eminönü. That was not my boat, which I came with and was not the one I would take to go to back Kadıköy. Most probably it was going to Bosphorus. We do have this boats and smaller ones which do trips on Bosphorus. Same take about a day, some takes about a few hours. If you take the daily trips you can have lunch too. (note that lunch is not included it to trip, you have to pay for it). Maybe I should take again some of it with friends this year 🙂

 

 

 

 

You may find İstanbul crowded.. We mostly spend our time out 🙂

I kept walking on the  bridge. As usual there were many fishermen. hehe:) some were women too:) 

Her is the Marmara Sea from between fisher hooks.. 

I saw that some made wooden hook holders and place it on the side of the bridge. Checking on what they caught I kept walking. about the mid of the bridge there are steps to go down. 

Weather was so nice and almost all of the photos came out nice.

 

You can take a look at all of the photos I took at my site; http://x.co/3Xa1B

Hmm. I am publishing all under promenade, may be I should use tags to separate them.

Almost at the mid of the bridge using those steps I took some photos towards Bosphorus Bridge.

You know some small boats go under bridge to the entrance of the Golden Horn and dock it over there.  

Here is one of them going under to Goldern Horn.

There were some more docks at Golden Horn but municipality closed many. And only two left one each side. And there were some old boats making tours at Golden Horn. These are old ottoman sultans’ boats, they are newly made.

Here you can make some reservation : http://www.sultankayiklari.com/?page_id=7

I don’t think they are operating during winter.

When I walked back up to stairs, I saw a few people were gathering around one small tray. I took a look at it. That was a cigarette tray. Guy was selling cigarettes. hehe 🙂 Malboro too.. I remembered my studying time at University of İstanbul.. Malboro was not selling in shops then, and we were buying it from trays on streets, even one piece by one 🙂 hehe:) students have usually no money to buy the whole package.  

Seeing the Galata Tower at back I  kept walking and looked for a nice place to take the tower’s photo. 

Yes, I found it and took the photo including my shadow 🙂 I did not realized I was taking my shadow too, because I was only looking at the tower and people. Sometimes yes, I do surprise like that:)))

The last photo from the steps;

I was almost at the end of the bridge.I do have a few more photos to work on..

Okay let’s continue..

Fishermen.. I saw some bowls with full of fish.. Here was one, not so many fishes at the moment, but all were still alive:)  

And I also saw a few fishermen were caught some fishes and were trying to remove them from the hooks.. Yes! I saw one fish on the air!  that is where my luck comes for this year 🙂  #optimistic   #optimist   #optimistatheart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their view from the side of the bridge were so interesting… Many people with fishhooks.. some were like catching birds, some were like catching minarets 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that was it, the end of the bridge I reached already..I needed to go another underpass. I found a corner to take the last photo of Galata Tower, before getting into underpass, is below.

 

Here that was the Karaköy dock in front of me. Before getting in the boat I wanted to have some coffee, some Turkish coffee. There were a nice coffee shop, I looked for it. I could not able to find it. I walked through this small street a few times and I took the dock’s photo. 

Meh!! İstanbul is one ever changing place on the earth! There was still Starbucks. Their Turkish coffee is not good at all. Anyway I get in and have my latte and “Bella Vista” I don’t know if you also have it, but it tastes good always..

While having my coffee and eating my cake I saw our “simitçi” between people sitting front of me. 

So that was time to take the boat for me. I slowly walk to the entrance, after using my pass-card I was in. Doors were just open, since the boat was already docked. I walked through steps in the boat to go to second floor to the back side.

I sat on a bank at the open area of the boat. And kept taking shoots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving the Eminönü dock, boats pass through Saray Burnu (Cape of Palace) where Topkapı Palace reside. From the Marmara Sea Gülhane Park which is in front of the palace and the roof of Palace can be seen. Zooming does not give good result with mobile phones. May be I should learn about photo machines and buy one 🙂

 

 

I was at the right side of the boat this time, after passing Haydarpaşa we reached Kadıköy..

At the sea side of Kadıköy we had a big balloon to watch İstanbul from the air. There were some accident happened, so they removed the balloon and it is no more functioning. But its place like an iron flower still remains.

Oh! let me mention again; Kadıköy is at the Anatolian / Asia side of the İstanbul.

Okay, here is Kadıköy dock; 

AT Kadıköy we do have three docks. This one is for the boats which are going to Karaköy and Eminönü. At the right of this one we do have another one for the boats are going to Beşiktaş, and at the far right of that one we do have a dock for fast boats which are going to many docks all over İstanbul.

They did some restoration on this dock. And there was an exhibition at second floor. I’m planing to visit next time.

Here is the view of exhibition from the boat 🙂

After taking that photo I did get out. I planned to buy some fish before taking my car from oto park and going to home

Hehe:) took a photo of inside of the boat at my previous visit.

After getting out I walked through the open market at Kadıköy where one can find many food stuff. While walking among streets I raised my head and saw this picture..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turkey is home for many civilizations already, so you can find even religious stuff all together. But never forget %98 of Turkey’s population is Muslim.

When I lowered my head I saw a guy in front of me.  

 

He said another woman a day before took the same photo and he took the same photo with his mobile too 🙂 I saw that he was cooking coffee in coal, so I thought that would be nice to have a cup of it.

He was asking how much sugar I use in my coffee. Well, I prefer without sugar. Here in Turkey we have Turkish coffee sugarless, with a little sugar, with mild sugar and too sugary.. And we cook coffee with sugar, so be sure to say about your sugar amount to cooker previously.

 

And here was my coffee 🙂

Coffee always served with water and sometimes with lokum- Turkish delight too.

Hehe:) after having my daily coffee I moved to bought some fish for dinner.

This is the vacuuming unit. After choosing two types of fish from trays I waited the fishermen clean the fish and prepare for cooking. 

I usually don’t like waiting stand still, so I went to next shop to buy some bread and then some salad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I returned back I saw that a fisherman was already cleaning the fish I bought. After cleaning and washing all they vacuumed separately. I bought Palamut and Barbunya. 

I moved out from the fish market with cleaned fishes. I walked towards the otopark. hehe:) in the mid of the market there were a Noel Baba aka Santa Claus 🙂

Did you know he was born in Demre, Turkey?

He was playing guitar in the mid of the street. And he was funny with sport shoes :))

I went to my car and rode back to home.

This is the end of another #promenade in İstanbul 🙂

I wish everyone to have a great year..

Take a good care of yourself, I will continue to write.

Till then, bye.

@oyasan

Last updated by oyasanli at January 16, 2017.