Lazy Day in Istanbul Thursday, June 14, 2012

Today was a lazy day. I fixed omelets for Troy and Darius and then Troy and I walked down Istiklal to a restaurant near the Mamara Hotel. Troy had eaten there before and said the pide, or Turkish pizza, was really good. We arrived and the small Restaurant was empty. There were many fresh Turkish dishes displayed in the buffet. We sat and ordered the 1.5 portion pide for 15 lira. This pide would have meat and cheese for takeout back to Fariba at the apartment. We watched as the chef prepared the dough fresh and rolled it out and covered it with meat and cheese and then ladled a liquid flour mixture on top. He called this "black sea style" . The chef was very energetic and got us an up close look as he placed the pide in the oven with a long wooden pizza paddle. I peered into the oven and saw the actual wood burning in a corner in the back.
After a few minutes, the pide was ready and we headed back to the apartment. Troy and Darius and I then left and toured the funky neighborhood nearby called Cihangir. There are art galleries with original local art and well kept little antique stores. There are many barber shops and we tried to convince Darius to get a well needed haircut. There are cool little coffee shops and tea houses with various hippy types hanging out. There are neat local restaurants. We found a couple of neat items for a fair price and made purchases and took them back to our apartment. Then the boys and I went to a nargile (hookah) place and Troy and I had rose nargile and drank tea while Darius had a Fanta and I checked my email on the wifi.
Around 6:15 we headed back to the apartment and got Fariba and walked down Istiklal to the Tunel and rode down to the Galata Bridge and caught the tram to Aya Sofia for the walk to Hagia Eirene for a special musical performance of Turkish music. This is part of a special summer music series sponsored by Turkish Airlines and DHL. The Eirene is a mid sized mosque with great acoustics. The band is a group called the Gates of Felicity representing the gates used to access the private sanctum of Topkapi Palace. This was to be music of almost a classical nature that had been written and performed for the sultans in a bygone era.
After getting off of the tram, we walked up a hill to the Eirene through the gates of the grounds of Topkapi Palace which is guarded at all times by guards with machine guns. We found in the courtyard a crowd waiting to go inside with many people who appeared to be the class of Istanbul society, judging from the dress and jewelry. Upon entering the Eirene, we found our seats which I had purchased on the Internet. I had purposely chosen seats on the back row and it turned out to be a good call because the last ten rows were on a riser with each row higher than the one in front of it. We had a great view of the entire building.
The music started with a male soprano singing a Capella in an other worldly voice and another fellow with a deeper voice who had an incredible lung capacity. The voices, the instruments, the setting all contributed to a magical evening of music.
We had figured out that with four people it is less expensive to take a cab back to Istiklal and so that is what we did. We went back to the same pide place and had some more great food and then headed back to the apartment and went to sleep on a cool, beautiful night in Istanbul.