We have settled into a routine after a week. No more jet lag, and no more 2-hour naps in the afternoons. I go to bed around 8PM and wake at 4-5AM. We don’t venture out the door until after 9:30AM since Joe usually has a later start in the mornings. We tour the city, have lunch, and are usually back by 3:30PM, in time for the NY market opening at 4:30PM, and Joe’s basically doing what he always does at home – monitor the market until 11PM. In fact, we believe Turkey’s time zone works perfectly for us in this respect.
We had somewhat of a rough day yesterday, so we decided to give our aging Achilles a rest today by busing to and from Eyüp.
Eyüp is a more conservative town on the outskirts of Eminönü, where all the tourists are. The Eyüp Sultan Mosque is where Abu Ayub al-Ansari, a friend of prophet Muhammad, is buried. Naturally, this attracts Muslim pilgrims. We figured we’d visit to get a different flavor of Turkey.
The other attraction in Eyüp is the Pierre Loti Cafe, located at the top of the hill, that affords you a view of Istanbul. To get there one would need to take a teleferick (cable car) next to the mosque.
We sat for a bit, but got a little antsy as we wanted to grab lunch, which is all the way back where we are staying. So we made our way down into town to catch the bus.
The trip back was a breeze. I wonder what the locals think of us, as we navigate the public transit like a bunch of pros. We haven’t seen any other tourists on buses, but then again there are few tourists in town.
So far this place is #4 on my list (#1 is Sehzade Cag Kebap, #2 is Antiochia, #3 is Erol).
One more thing we’ve made a change to our routine is that we only eat one meal a day, as we found that eating 2 meals out is just too much for us at this point. I don’t want to end up like Chunky the cat by the time I leave Turkey.
Today’s total was $30 (meals plus transportation).
FIRE'd @ 47 