Istanbul - Part 1

I flew into Istanbul on August 17th. They have 2 main airports there. The older one on the European side, which is perhaps 20 minutes at the most outside the city, and the newer one, which is on the Asian side, and can be well over an hour away if traffic is nasty - - and traffic in Istanbul must like to be nasty because it always seems to be so! You can guess which airport I flew into. That's right, good 'ol Transavia Airline dropping me off at Sabiha Airport, which requires catching something called a Havas Bus (one of a few choices on how to get to Istanbul from this airport) outside the terminal that will take you to Taksim Square. From there you will require another bus, or bus then train to get near enough to where we were staying. I chose the taxi outside the Pizza Hut once I made it to Taksim Square. Besides, I had read it was only a €5 fare and that was okay by me. But just for my own entertainment, the powers that be gifted a cab driver to me who didn't know where my hotel was. You have to imagine nighttime, narrow streets, congested with vehicles and people, scant observable traffic laws...confusion with a dash of chaos. Up a road...down a road...wrong way down the one-way...ask someone - new information - hard left turn...show him the location on the map...puzzled look...ask another person - get ignored - yell at them...pull up on sidewalk - go into store to ask where's New Era Hotel...up next road...down next road...back down same road...ask someone...new direction...honk horn...do a 9-point turn...squeeze past standing traffic...left turn...cars block road...BUT, I see New Era Hotel sign...stop, I'll get out here and walk the rest of the way. Paid the guy and happily checked in at the reception desk which was the size of my suitcase. Went up the equally narrow staircase to my room and got settled. The next morning I awoke early and had breakfast on the rooftop terrace, which offered great views over the rooftops out to the Sea of Marmara! Some strange choices were on the buffet (french fries) but there was enough nutrition to get me started. My first destination on foot was the interesting neighborhood I caught glimpses of the night before. At the time I was convinced this is the Miami, Naples, Boca Raton for buildings, where they come to decay and die. I have since discovered they apparently also like Athens, but that's a later story. So...urban decay surrounds me and I find it interesting as hell - but many locals are looking at me with WTF expressions. Thought bubble - "Beautiful mosques surround him and this schmuck is making pictures of buildings without roofs? Crazy infidel!!" But their mental confusion did not deter me, as I smiled and kept making pictures and moving on. CATS!!!!! Cats everywhere!!!!!! Darting in all directions, licking themselves, licking each other, sleeping, in trash cans, fighting, having kitty booty calls, sniffing things, eyeballing each other, trying to catch a small sparrow. There were 2 cats next to me that just started getting busy, and she (I'm going to assume the one on the bottom or "nailee") looked miserable the ENTIRE TIME!!! Stupidly, I told her (yes, I spoke to this cat) "Turn around and knock him the F@#$ off of you." He looked and acted really pissed off the entire time, and she looked miserable for 90% of it and bored the last 10. At least the lions we saw in Africa "getting busy" had what appeared to be good experiences - he definitely looked worn out and proud, and she looked and acted satisfied. If I had ever seen that female cat's expression over the years in my species (human, before you get any funny ideas) I would've needed serious counseling to get back up on that figurative horse. So my entire morning is spent in this neighborhood, visiting a couple of Mosques and some outdoor markets. All of these places are in Sultanahmet, where the famous Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii) is located. In the afternoon I took a tram to a stop near the Bosphorus, the waterway that separates the European and Asian continents. That is a very bustling place as most waterside locations can be. Of course a nice man befriended me as I sat to take a break in the shade from the heat. What are the odds he would be a carpet salesman?!?!?! Such good fortune I have sometimes! And he was once a photographer!! Again, I'm beating the odds. I bet he graduated in my high school class and I never knew him, even though he was about 10 years younger than me!!!! Anyway, after all of our similarities and coincidences were behind us, I took a look at his store where they sold carpets, gold jewelry, and maybe a few other things that escape me now. As I enjoyed a refreshing, scorching cup of tea on this frigid 90f/32c day, I looked over several samples of carpets brought out by another sharply dressed man (image of ZZ Topp pops into head). I told him from the start I make no purchases of this type without my wife, not even to surprise her as he suggested, so that pretty much wrapped things up there. I didn't get back to the hotel until close to 10pm, tired from a full day of walking. The next morning after breakfast I walked down to the waterside near the hotel, where the Sea of Marmara comes ashore. I walked away from the hustle and bustle of the Blue Mosque tourist area and went to the commercial area. Another long walk on an increasingly hot morning, I ended up back at the Bosphorus where I spent a lot of time on the bridge, watching people along the shore and fishermen on the bridge. I walked back to my hotel a little after lunchtime, and made some more pictures of the neighborhood in the area. I had to go back to Taksim Square that evening to meet up with Radhika, who followed the same plan I did once landing at Sabiha Airport. We took a taxi to the hotel, with me knowing and telling the driver where it was and how much the fare should be. Of course we arrived and the driver quoted an amount twice what I told him it would be, and I advised him of that. We paid in Euros because I didn't have enough in Turkish Lira, so he got a little extra anyway. We got settled in the room and then went out for a nice dinner. We found an "okay" one instead, and called it a night.