Following our first day in the Istanbul, in which we mostly moped around the Old Town, we spent the Istanbullian evening in the slightly livelier Taksim area.

To get there, we headed down to the Galata bridge, which allows pedestrian crossing of the ‘Golden Horn’, the river inlet from the Bosphorus that cuts into the European side of Istanbul.

We were in fairly low energy/slightly sick still mode, so mostly just wandered around in a very chill way….

We did make a stop at Galata tower, largely to see the views of the city from above….

…But also because of this chain.

Which is admittedly incredibly cool. It was used as a very simple but for-a-long-time-insurmountable barrier to physically block any ships from entering the Golden Horn, and thus protecting the city and land.

Kind of ridiculous how low tech it is- a literal trip-rope as a method to prevent incoming armies.

Sameer really really liked the chain.

After some minutes of admiration, we headed down the tower further, where Sameer knocked tiny children out of the way so that he could play with some AI….

….and then struggled to get down through the fairly tiny tunnels.

Back on the streets, we wandered a bit through the area…

… and the stoped for coffee and cake.

This one being a very delicious San Sebastian cheesecake, which was unfortunately covered in very sugary milk chocolate.

More wandering occurred, which included Sameer finding very cool vintage shop which was stocked to a level that even my hoarding family would find impressive.

Because it was Christmas eve, we did the cultural thing of checking out a church…

… before making our way home, via a ginormous platter of food.

All up, Taksim definitely had more of a vibe than the Old City, and I think if we went back to Istanbul for a couple of days we’d angle to stay in that area.

The next day was Christmas, and a trip to the Asian side of Istanbul….

24th December 2022