Istanbul – Day 06

Today, we move into a new home. Côme gives a drawing to the sweet landlady and say goodbye to the nice man from the shop down the stairs. We barely know them but the goodbyes are sincere and we are sad to leave. After buying our morning buns (yes, the price had changed again this morning), we head up towards the tram. We tell Côme that goodbyes are always a bit sad, but they are also always an opportunity to discover new things, meet new people. The slope is not easy to “climb” with all our stuff. We are really glad our bags are not heavier.

The tram takes us to the other side of the river through a bridge. And you know what? There are fishermen all along the way… Côme was right! You can fish in the Bosphore! But with the height and the many boats going underneath the bridge, we really don’t know how they manage.

And on the other side… It’s a whole new world. Another city. Istanbul is nothing like we have seen the past few days. Not more mayhem, honks and endless shops. No dirty streets and wandering cats (well much less). The pace is much slower. Here, we are under the impression we are in Europe. It’s clean, residential. There are many cafés where people are relaxing, fancy shops, antique dealers and luxurious hotels. But there are many many tourists and people (including the tourists) seem better-off. We’re glad yesterday was a laundry day. The main pedestrian street feels like Vienna with an “elecric” from Lisbon.

And our new appartment is nothing like the other one. It’s modern, there’s a beautiful Italian shower, the kitchen is fully equiped, and we even have a beautiful view on the city. The only remnant from the past few days is the hairdryer that still belongs to the 18th century BCE. This way though, we are not completely out of place…

Today, Côme:
Did not understand: why there are fur shops whereas it’s ultra hot outside.
Learnt: that old typewriter existed and how they worked.
Enjoyed: the stroll.

Julia:
Did not understand:
Learnt: that quite a few people came to Istanbul for nose surgery and hair implants (you can see a lot of them with bandages in the streets).
Enjoyed: our evening together. We were celebrating Julia and Eric’s 5 year anniversary.

Doo:
Did not understand: how the fishermen could fish on that bridge.
Learnt: Istanbul is really different cities together.
Liked: a library coffee.