İznik
With serendipitously coinciding days off, Kimby and I wandered to İznik for the day. Some pics:
A mosque in iznik covered with the meşhur eponymous tiles. and lots of men outside - it’s friday and we’ve just heard the ezan.
İznik was historically a walled city, with the walls in a pentagon shape and four gates at the major NSEW directions. Remnants of the gates and the walls still remain. This is the Yenişehir Gate, to the South. The gates were built in the time period 69-81 AD (Roman age).
This is the Lefke Gate, to the East. The gates are named for the city that is reachable by following the road in that direction.
A closeup of the Lefke gate.
A long section of the wall still standing near the Lefke gate.
In the museum, a carved decoration from the Roman period. I’m sorry I forgot to get a closeup of the placard, but I remember the figure is Hercules.
Meşhur Manyas kavunu, 1ytl/kg. (that’s kinda expensive melon, but hey, apparently it’s famous.)
Near the Yenişehir gate, we met a farmer on a tractor and his wife in the wagon being pulled behind. When we waved hello, they stopped and offered us nectarines.
Kids near the Lefke gate, they really wanted to have their picture taken.
Travel instructions from Istanbul: Take the fast ferry to Yalova (embark at Bostancı, Kartal, Pendik or Yenikapı depending on your location and timing) - fare from Kartal was 5.50 using the akbil, 7ytl without. Travel time less than an hour depending on your starting point.
Disembark in Yalova and walk about 10 mins to the left to a bus area right across the street from the bazaar (active on Saturdays). Find the minibus to İznik near the back, 7.50 fare. During the center of the day (9am to 6pm), the minibusses go every hour at 10 past the hour and a couple more times outside those hours. Travel time less than an hour, get off at the final stop in the center of town. Total travel time (including some waiting for the minibus) is less than 3 hours. Same path in reverse to get home except you have to get on the minibus at the İznik otogar (bus station) a little way away from the center of town (easy to find with the map from the tourist information center, or by asking a local).
vegetable truckThe vegetable sellers come around in trucks, park for a while and move on. Sometimes there’s a bit of trouble with the “moving on” part, when the streets are so narrow.
morning sunevery now and then, it’s possible to get a picture of Istanbul that looks calm and clean. A rare moment.
rooftop viewThis is the view from the roof of a hostel I stayed at for a few weeks in April 2006, in Tunel. The view is looking south across the halıç (golden horn). Suleymaniye Camii (mosque) is in the left background. I’m guessing that’s Fatih Camii on the far right.
Topkapı SarayıTopkapı Palace as seen from the Istanbul Modern museum, across the mouth of the golden horn.
me at Istanbul ModernA rare decent photo of me, so put it in! Photo taken by Emrah. It was his first (and probably last) visit to the modern art museum.
jenney on stairsIstanbul is a very hilly city (it is called Seven Hills but I think there are lots more than that). In some areas, they solved the steepness problem by building lots of stairs. These stairs are on the most direct path from my apartment down to the Bosphorus (on a clearer day, you could tell that there’s water past that red roof). I climb these stairs a lot (yes, down AND up). This day, Jenney and I are going exploring together.
The wallChina has a great wall, but so does Istanbul. It is a massive, several-mile-long wall built in a semicircle around the old city of Istanbul as a protective barrier. You can still walk the wall from one end to the other, and find it in various stages of disrepair and restoration.
the wall 2Unfortunately, you can also find lots of garbage. Turks haven’t picked up on the anti-litter idea yet.
gateA massive gate in the wall.
Fatih streetSome houses on the streets of a poorer section of Fatih (a district of Istanbul known for very conservative religious practice), right next to the wall.
Fatih CamiiFatih mosque, as seen from the top of the wall.
Bustly streetA street scene of Istanbul, with the setting sun shining on the hills behind. Just a pic to show that not everything in this city is old. It’s rather bustly.
meydan & hamam
tokat fruit stand
tokat back street
cami (mosque)
Gök Medrese
outside gök medrese
