What would you like to drink???

--> Çay! What else in Istanbul???

What do you think is the favourite drink in Turkey?

Coffee? Beer? Wine? Tea???

As far as I know it's tea - Çay!

Along the Black Sea coast, especially in the area of Rize, you find large tea plantations, where most of the tea drunk in Turkey comes from.

So everywhere we took a time out during our trip through Istanbul, we drunk our turkish tea - Çay!

Of course there are alternatives to the tea...

Cola turka!!!
;-)

5.KAT - 5th floor

Three weeks ago: a rainy Sunday evening in Istanbul.

Only 30 hours ago it looks like that from the roof of the same place:

A great view on the Bospherus and to the Asian side of Istanbul megacity.

***   ***   ***

But on the evening we reserved a table at 5.KAT, the atmosphere was a more like on a evening in late autumn - solemnly and gracefully.

So exactly the right atmosphere to have a great candle-light dinner...

 

5.KAT - the name of the restaurant means 5th floor. 

It's in Cihangir, one of the neighborhoods of the Beyoğlu district in Istanbul. The neighborhood there has many narrow streets, a park, and street cafes. It is located between Taksim Square and Kabataş.

The international dishes - and the prices - are on a high level - but in combination with the great atmosphere and staff it was really worth the money.

Testi Kebab

 

In the evening of our third day in Istanbul we met some really nice guys  - Yusuf & Hakan & their team - running a great restaurant:
café & restaurant aloran at Cankurtaran, Istanbul.

If you're tired of being kidnapped when studying the menu of a restaurant and when you just want a friendly talk with local people, you absolutely must visit this place!

 One of the specialities of aloran restaurant is testi kebab, a variation of the traditional kebab, in which the meat and veggies are cooked over the fire in a clay pot, after which the pot is cracked open and served.

The guys from aloran celebrate each opening ceremony of a testi kebab clay pot like an event. 

And the event photographer of the evening tried to capature the key scenes of the ceremony to the point.

:-))

Afiyet olsun! - Enjoy your meal!

You'll never walk alone...

...on a Saturday afternoon in Istanbul.

Especially not through the underpass (altgeçit) in front of Galata bridge.

OK, let's go downstairs...

...and become acquainted with (felt) 10% of the total population of Istanbul (~ 13 Mio.)

WHO wants to buy some shoes in this crush of people???

Local inhabitants obviously do. 

I don't.

Who's that damn good-looking "high tower" in the front of the crowd of people???

;-))

By the way: İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi means: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

And not:

Now you enter a pedestrian underpass with millions of other people, some of them will stop without any prior warning and want to buy some shoes.

;-))

We did it!

Fresh air and an outlook on the Galata tower and bridge at last.

What you might see on a sunny day from Galata Tower...

Bosphorus and Golden Horn - and a sea (?) --> ocean (!) of  houses.

The Golden Horn (on the right) is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of years.

To get a great overview about Istanbul megacity I warmly recommend the way up on Galata Tower, one of the city's most striking landmarks.

Outlook from the left to the right: Topkapi palace, Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed Mosque with its six minarets...

...and here in all its glory in front of one of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara.

Couldn't decide whether to make a colored or a monochrome panorama out of the photo...

...that shows the financal centers Levent (in the middle) and Maslak (right side) with its skyscrapers.

***   ***   ***

Your "rivals" never rest:

Photo shooting on the rooftops below Galata Tower

Sunny boy? --> Golden (Horn) Boy!

...after the bicycle he took his car with him on the roof. Unfortunately I didn't captured the scene ;-(

At the foot of the tower I found "Mehmet Woof-woof", the vigilant guard and shepherd of...

... his own wild dreams.

;-)

Cats of Istanbul

Cats. Everywhere at Istanbul.

Most of them seem to be stray cats, but of course they all have their preferred territory where they roam around.

They sleep in cardboxes or in house entrances or wherever they like.

They find their food in front of restaurants or in refuse containers. Or they are fed by inhabitants or tourists, because they seem to be welcome and accepted by the majority of people.

Miaow.

After sunset in Sultanhamet...

Have you ever been to Istanbul?

Two weeks ago I had to answer this question with "No, never". 

But then I got the chance to travel to the megacity (and European Capital of Culture 2010) located left and right side of the Bosphorus - one part in Europe, the other part in Asia.

And now I know it was a mistake...

...waiting such a long time for the first trip to this amazing destination!

Here are some of my first impressions of Istanbul right after the sun vanished in the west behind one of the seven city hills. The photos are taken in Sultanhamet, one of the city districts on the European part. Where you (and many millions of tourists and inhabitants) find some of the most important places of interest of the old town parts formerly known as Constantinople.

The first two photos display the Hagia Sophia, a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica (inaugurated by Constantius II on 15 February 360), later a mosque, now a great museum in Sultanahmet, Istanbul.

Opposite to Hagia Sopia, after a turn to the left, you see the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, widly known as the Blue Mosque.

The Blue Mosque - it was built between 1609 and 1616 - is one of the two mosques in Turkey with six minarets.

Many tour guides often tell the following story, although it is not true: The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is one of the two mosques in Turkey that has six minarets. The other one is the Sabancı Mosque in Adana. When the number of minarets was revealed, the Sultan was criticized for being presumptuous, since this was, at the time, the same number as at the mosque of the Ka'aba in Mecca. He overcame this problem by ordering for a seventh minaret to be built at the Mecca mosque. In fact, the mosque in Mecca already had seven minarets for over a century before the Blue Mosque was constructed.

I took the photos from two different "roof garden restaurants" which are very popular in Istanbul.