The hospitable Turks

Sunday’s are always a lazy day. I got up at 0800 even though I’d gone to sleep at 0430. Had to force myself to go back to sleep. When I woke up I had missed breakfast, which wasn’t such a big issue since I didn’t feel too hungry.

The weather is simply awesome today. It’s a bit windy and chilly. Most of the locals I see around the area are wearing windbreakers and jackets. I, however, didn’t realize the weather would be like this and didn’t bring any warm clothing. So as usual I set out in my cotton shirt, attracting quite a bit of attention since I was the only one dressed that way.

I walked as far as Yesilyurt. The hotel I’m in is in Yesilkoy. Yesilkoy is to my knowledge the ocean side area of the larger area called Yesilyurt. The local public transport I took last night to get back from Istiklal Street (Taksim Square) dropped me off at the Yesilyurt stop. There is a small market there, and I thought it would be nice to drop in a little store and grab a few snacks. So I walked all the way over, but somehow didn’t feel like getting anything when I entered one of the markets. After strolling around for a while, I thought I’d grab some lunch but it was hardly noon by that time. However, I did stop at a small café and looked around to see if I could find anything interesting to eat. The proprietor was a friendly sort and even though I had decided not to stay, he still handed me a menu to take with me just in case I changed my mind. And so I headed back to the hotel. I went to my room and grabbed my laptop to check my emails.

It was around 1500 when I realized I really needed to eat something. So I walked back to the market in Yesilyurt. I went straight to that nice little café I had found and ordered the tawuk sis. It’s basically grilled chicken, served with french fries, paprika and tomatoes. I ordered some bread as well, since Pakistani diet without bread isn’t complete.

The man seemed really friendly and apologized for his English but I found it to be far better than the average English speaking skills of Istanbulites. The meal was delicious when it finally arrived. I felt that it wouldn’t be enough for me since I thought I was really hungry, but surprisingly the helping that seemed to be meager was filling enough. I started chatting up with Faris Ali (the proprietor) and he told me he knew quite a bit of German since he had lived there for 8 years. Sadly I have totally forgotten any German that I had learned. The paprika was especially delicious and I asked for one more, however I got a whole plateful. The Turks, as far as I’ve found them, are extremely courteous, friendly and generous people. Faris even got me another serving of bread even though I explained that I was almost done and wouldn’t need any more.

My colleague called, he’d just woken up, and told me that our travel plans for today stood cancelled since he needed to catch up on work. So I told him, I’d walk back to the hotel and catch up on my work too. I was planning on asking for the bill, when Faris offered or rather insisted that I try the traditional Turkish halwa. And so I did. It was delicious, reminded me of the home made halwa my mother used to make with puris. As I was digging into halwa, a cup of tea was also placed in front of me. I asked him which should I try first, the halwa or the tea and in his poor understanding of English he misunderstood me and kept repeating that it was all complimentary. Later he did understand and told me to go with the halwa first and then for the tea. His suggestion worked. The heaviness of the halwa disappeared with the first few sips of the tea.

Now was the time for the bill. Fearing that something else might be served, I quickly asked for the bill. When it arrived, I again asked why the halwa and tea weren’t on it. And the gracious Turk he was, Faris explained that it was on him. I left him a 33% tip for that. Maybe it would cover the tea and halwa to some extent.

Took a walk back to the hotel and decided to catch up on work. It wasn’t as much as I feared it would be so here I am writing this experience.

What I do in the evening would probably show up at the blog tomorrow. Let’s see if it does.

Martina Hingis look-alike at the Galleria

I snapped this picture, without the girl knowing. I'm hoping she wouldn't mind if I posted this here. She looked awfully like Martina Hingis, so I just took this picture on impulse.

Let me know if you agree or disagree.

Morning walk at the Bosphorus

Breakfast on the Hotel Terrace

That's the view from the hotel terrace. I am in the last room in the block you see in the picture, so my room affords a breath-takingly beautiful view. I could stay here for a loooooong time






And this is me

My room in Turkey

I am in Turkey today. Here for official work and I'm staying at the Çinar Hotel Istanbul.

As you can guess from the text above, I'm a bit tired. Flew from Karachi at 0300 (and I left home around 2330 to be there by 0000). The flight time is 5 hours and 40 minutes. Since Turkey is 2 hours behind Pakistan, I got here by 0640 local time. After going through passport control and customs, I took a cab (who ranted all the way to the hotel for God knows what - I can imagine that the trip being small didn't get him enough fare).

Checked into the hotel and here's a pic of my room.



The room doesn't give much to talk about. However, the view is to die for. I'm sure you'll be expecting pictures. Low quality yet again, since they're all taken from the cell phone cam. Will post pictures from a good camera soon.