Cihangar and Turkish Dance Thursday June 21

Another late sleep then down the hill to Cihangar for lunch at Ozkonak, a little locals restaurant that we enjoyed a few times on the trip. Here you can enjoy such delicacies as stuffed egggplant, bell pepper and zucchini as well as lamb stew and other good stuff. The desserts, usually pudding or custard, are also sumptuous as well. After Ozkonak we went to Sultanamet and sat at our favorite nargile place for a couple of hours, listening to traditional Turkish music while engaging in banter with the matre'd. He started using the boys' heads as percussion instruments at one point.
We walked down to the cultural center and played some tavlah and had tea and 3 lira doners (roasted chicken with pickles, tomatoes and cilantro. Troy and I went in search of cheap baklava but the cheapest we could find was 30 lira per kg. it was too far to walk to the 25 per kg place.
The dance performance was at the same place that we had earlier seen the sufis. The crowd was very international, though with few Americans. The performance was exhilarating. I have put up pictures and video.
After the dance performance we walked to the Galata Bridge. The scene was one of Africans selling mostly watches and wallets and other knickknacks. There are very few black skinned people in Istanbul and most of them appear to be Africans, perhaps from Nigeria and the Sudan. There were also guys grilling fish over charcoal on little carts. Fariba and Troy got fish sandwiches. The fish are grilled with the bone in. The guy pulls the fish off the grill and yanks the skeleton off of the fish removing most of the bone. The fish is placed on bread with tomatoes and cucumbers.
We walked across the bridge, watching the fisherman and seeing Sultanamet and Beyoglu aglow from the city lights and the lights of the mosques. It was surreal to know we were still here in Istanbul, seeing this spectacular view. We caught the Tunel up the hill and walked Istiklal to the apartment and hit the sack.