A Sunday in Istanbul

As luck would have it, this was the day of the Istanbul Marathon. The places that we'd lined up for a visit today were all inaccessible. But that wasn't going to prevent us from venturing out. Neither were the rain and dark clouds going to keep us indoors. So off we went, map in tow, to the Ortaköy area where, in addition to numerous cafes and restaurants, we found an interesting store selling motorcycling gear. We browsed there for a while as we tried to stay out of the rain but eventually made our way to The House Cafe across the street where we got our first experience of Turkish style casual dining.

As we watched the scene around us in the restaurant, we began forming some instant opinions... the Turks were big on moustaches! They were also big on smoking. But more than anything else, the Turks seemed to be cool, quite chic, and fashionably conscious. And English... no problem!

After lunch, we walked around in the neighbourhood, checking out the big Bosphorus Bridge that connects Europe with Asia, before making our way back to Taksim where our hotel was. We decided to view a performance of the Turkish Military Band at the Istanbul Harbiye Military Museum & Culture Center. Our moustache theory was re-confirmed during this very-well attended performance. Most of the musicians had thick hairy growth above their upper lips. Their uniforms were from the early-20th century. And the music they played was a mix of martial and local folk. The performance was in a hall inside a Military Museum. We didn't have the time to check out the museum but we're sure they would have had an interesting collection of exhibits. After all, Istanbul - Constantinople - Byzantium... it has a rich and diverse military history. Even during WWI and WWII, Turkey was a key front in the war between the Allied and Axis powers. In fact, one of the only dates I remember from my history lesson is 1453 - the fall of Constantinople!

Anyway, several pictures later, we got into a taxi and made our way to a shopping mall called Istinye Park. He he... while the rest of Istanbul was busy burning calories in the Marathon, we were busy burning plastic! And to conclude a long day, we had dinner at another outlet of The House Cafe in the mall.