Üsküdar'a Giderken...

I had arranged with my pumpkin Seyda to move across to her side today. Seyda lives on the Asian side of Istanbul in Uskudar. The plan was for me to meet her at Besiktas Wharf at 7pm.

It’s peak hour traffic at 6pm and I got rejected from one of the cab drivers to take me there. So I decided to catch the tram from Sultan Ahmet to Kabatas and walk the distance. Being squashed on a tram with luggage is seriously frustrating. Especially when you have 15 different odours mixing into one. I’m lucky I didn’t vomit on people before throwing myself off the tram.

The fun part comes getting on the tram. People throw themselves onto the tram without giving way to people getting off the tram. Logic would be to wait for people to get off a jam packed tram but obviously people don’t understand this concept in Istanbul!

It took me another 10 minutes trying to push my way through the crowd once I got off the tram. People got sick of waiting so they jumped on the tram tracks to escape when the security guard told them off. The guy started a fight with the security guard and things look to turn nasty. I swear things like this only happen around me. The worst part was I was stuck in the middle of the crowd and if things turned nasty there was no way of escaping. Luckily the crowd emptied out and I was safe as I threw myself onto the nearest footpath.

I began my walk from Kabatas to Besiktas with the luggage in my hand. I was planning on catching a bus but because it was peak hour traffic I noticed that traffic wasn’t moving anywhere. It would be quicker to walk.

It was a nice walk and it was shorter than I imagined it to be. I finally arrived at the Besiktas Wharf and planted myself down with the luggage waiting for Seyda.

Once Seyda showed up we jumped onto a ferry to Kadikoy. The plan was to grab dinner in Kadikoy before going to Uskudar. It was a short ferry trip to Kadikoy from Besiktas.

Once the ferry pulled to the dock we walked off the ferry towards the bus stop. However once we saw the queue at the bus stop we decided it would be easier catching a cab to Bagdat Caddesi. We got rejected by one cab driver who claimed there was heaps of traffic that way while a few other cab drivers simply snubbed us off.

We spent 5minutes on the edge of the road waiting for a cab. When we finally managed to stop one we jumped in without telling him where we were headed.

It was a short trip to Bagdat Caddesi. Bagdat Caddesi is a long strip or a main road with cafes, restaurants, shops and apartments. We jumped off near the Vakko building to walk towards a restaurant called Vapiano.




Vapiano is an Italian restaurant in Istanbul. It’s a stylish, trendy and popular joint. The minute you walk into the restaurant they hand you a card. At first I thought it was some sort of advertisement but apparently whatever you buy in the restaurant they add it to the card.
Its an open kitchen separated into 3 or 4 blocks. Ones for salads, one’s for pizza’s and another ones for pasta’s. Basically you order what you want in each area and they add the item to the card and cook your meal in front of you.

Without placing our food orders we raced to the bar to grab a glass of wine each. We were at the bar about to order a glass of wine each when I realised it would probably be better if we grabbed a bottle. It would feel too much of a tease after one glass. So we grabbed a bottle of white wine and then placed our meal orders.

Pumpy went for pasta while I ordered a mushroom pizza (as below picture). We found a spot upstairs to plant ourselves. I was right we drank the first glass of wine quickly. We finished the bottle in no time.

We walked out of Vapiano to meet up with my friend Sina at a bar in Kadikoy. I met Sina a few year ago when he was dating my cousin Elit. We clicked the moment we met and got on like a house on fire. After their break up we managed to keep in touch by email and msn.

We jumped onto a dolmus on the main road. Those that don’t know a dolmus is a mini bus. You can only fit about 10 people on it. It was a little packed when we got on so Seyda and I sat at the back seat next to this guy. A few stops later this guy suddenly jumped up to get off and managed to fall on top of me shoving his ass in my face. This some how started a laughing fit at the guy who struggled to throw himself off the dolmus.

Now the best part! A few stops later this young kid jumped onto the dolmus. He decided to sit next to Seyda near the window. When he tried to get to the window seat he fell on top of Seyda smack towards your chest. The poor guy said sorry like a million times but this just increased my laughing fit.

It was too hard trying to stop laughing. A few stops later this other guy jumped on and sat next to me. Everything was fine until he opened his mouth and for some reason this started my laughing fit again. I swear once my laughing fits start its too hard to stop them now.

We finally managed to get off the dolmus without causing a bigger stir. We stood in front of some café waiting for Sina to pick us up. 10 minutes later we found Sina and followed him to this bar.
This bar which I cant remember the name of was like a typical Turkish night in Sydney. With Turkish music pumping and random strangers dancing inside. It’s very rare that you hear Turkish music at a bar here. It’s mostly English music. They tend to throw in one or two Turkish songs to keep locals happy.

We sat outside on the balcony next to the water as Sina and his friends where there. They were celebrating the fact their wages got cut today. Yes that can happen in Turkey! They can easily give you a pay decrease.

It was quite chilly on the balcony but we decided to order another glass of white wine each to keep the night happening. Our white wines arrived but they weren’t that nice but we decided not to waste the alcohol and drink it anyway.

We didn’t end up staying that long in the Turkish bar. We walked out to catch a cab to finally head to Seyda’s house in Uskudar. We jumped into the first cab we found for me to start a laughing fit again. The cab driver was weird but hey aren’t they all in Turkey? The laughing fit was inspired this time because Seyda decided to explain to the cab driver where in Turkey she is from. Seyda started naming Ankara, Bursa, Selanik, Samsun… I was in stiches by the time we jumped out of the cab. The cab driver thought we were together and we made the right decision. I have no idea what the fuck that was about.

Meanwhile we counted the Starbucks on Bagdat Caddesi and there was 7 of them. I swear the people here are obsessed with Starbucks. Who the hell pays $8 for a coffee?

We headed upstairs to Seyda’s apartment. We were getting ready for bed when Seyda decided to pop open a bottle of red wine she brought in Germany. Next thing you know we drank that as well before hitting the sack.