SISLI TO OSMANBEY TO TAKSIM

Another late morning wake up. We eventually drag our asses out of bed after 1pm. Once again we missed the famous hotel breakfast. I wonder if we will ever make it to breakfast at Sude Konak this time around?

We have been planning on going to the Turkish Islands, mainly Princes Island by ferry for the last few days. However since none of us can be fucked getting up early for this we keep missing the ferries. Every morning the alarm clock goes off and we both take one look at each other and say nothing. The look says it all. It’s the look of don’t even think about mentioning the Islands.

We storm out of bed and prepare for our Maestro breakfast. God that place is starting to be our hang out. Its like the TV show Friends. They have that café in Central Park we have Maestro in Sikeci haha

We wave to the staff at Maestro as we sit ourselves down at one of the tables. I think we have managed to sit at every table in this restaurant at one time or another. I order my usual breakfast plate while Lucy decides on an omelette.

The Breakfast Plate

Since we missed out on our Princes Island again we decide to plan our day. We decide to hit one of the biggest shopping centres in Istanbul - Cevahir at Sisli.

Cevahir Shopping centre is the biggest shopping centre in Istanbul as well as the largest shopping centre in Europe and the seventh largest in the world. It opened its doors on 15 October 2005. A few weeks after I left Turkey.

According to figures Cevahir Shopping Centre cost approx $250 US million to build. Located on six floors there are approx 280 shops. It features 34 fast food restaurants and 14 other restaurants in the complex. It has a big stage for shows and other events as well as 12 cinemas including an IMAX 3D Cinema. A bowling alley is hidden in the lower floors as well as a small roller coaster as part of the entertainment area. Plus there is a mosque in the basement floor.

Before leaving for Cevahir we decide to stock up on water from the supermarket down the road. Walking towards the supermarket there’s a guy who stands outside his restaurant who practically gets hard the minute Lucy walks past him. He has a habit of shoving his eyes down her top. If he had the choice he would probably grab Lucy and rub her chest all over his face!
We manage to grab the water and decide to hit a chemist. We ask the assistant at the chemist if they have Berocca. The assistant has no idea what I’m on about. He screams out to the pharmacist. Less than 2 minutes in here and we have caused a scene. Eventually they tell me they don’t have it.

We leave the chemist to walk inside of another one. They also don’t have Becorra but they have the Turkish equivalent to Berocca so we end up buying that. Our theory is Becorra will give us the energy to go to the Turkish Islands.

We head back to the hotel pasting the guy who stares down Lucy’s top to notice his eyes focus on her chest again. We dump everything at the hotel before jumping into a cab.

After a short taxi ride we arrive at Cevahir shopping centre.

We stroll into the shopping centre after a security check to immediately hit the cameras.

One of the unique things about this shopping centre is the glass roof carries the biggest clock in the world.

Even though the shopping centre made a massive splash on its opening the safety of the shopping centre was a major concern when the media strongly criticised the mall when a 3 year old girl fell from the 4th floor balcony. This was apparently the second death within the same month after a teenage boy. Mall management immediately responded by installing extra balcony handrails.

We soon realise this shopping centre has multiple levels. We decide to start from the bottom and work our way up. Of course this involves me storming into a CD shop. I cant help myself but start stacking up the Turkish CD’s and DVD’s while Lucy checks out the cookbooks.

By the time we reach the top level we realise we are dead exhausted so we storm inside a café for Turkish Tea. We order tea and sit down. Within minutes we start arguing over why we didn’t order something to eat. Next thing you know we order a Turkish sucuk toast each.

Feeling energized by the tea and the sandwich we continue our shopping spree but not before we spot this Chinese all you can eat buffet. For $8.50 you get a Chinese buffet.

We storm from one store to another. Lucy doesn’t buy anything. Actually I’m quite disgusted. Lucy has barely brought anything in the last few days. She really must be sick. Its not like her. Since the shopping centre isn’t doing it for her I make a call to Seyda to find out how we can get from here to Nisantasi area.

I follow her instructions in catching the metro to Osmanbey and then walking up and down the streets. Since its peak hour traffic it will take us ages in getting from here to Nisantasi with a cab.
We arrive in Osmanbey to walk up and down the streets. This is when I spot Ataturk's house slash Museum:

There’s some cheap stores but this still doesn’t help Lucy make a purchase. We walk into a store to find all these nice jewelleries. For a moment I have hope that Lucy may make a purchase but no. The only purchase we make is for a friend and not her.

Feeling dissatisfied we decide to catch the metro to Taksim. By this stage I notice that Lucy is ready to shove anyone in her way. Retail therapy hasn’t kicked in. We arrive in Taksim to do a quick lap or so of Istikkal Cad. We manage to spot a few Chinese restaurants. Looks like the Chinese is slowing moving into Turkey.

Below - A chinese man in action - cooking chinese food:

Since we didn’t have a big lunch we decide to choose a restaurant to have dinner in. Lucy suggests we go to one of those Turkish buffet places. So for the next 5 minutes we walk up and down the street trying to decide on one. We finally pick one and enter. You basically walk in, grab a tray and tell them what you would like on your plate. Once we collected our meals we stroll upstairs to find a table to dine in.

I decided to have mash potatoes with chicken with a side salad. Lucy decided on Kofte with mash potatoes with Kazandibi for dessert. I warned her the Kazandibi wont be as good as the one from Ortakoy. I’m still craving for that Kazandibi today.

Our Taksim Dinner

We finished up with dinner to continue doing laps in Taksim:

We finally gave up and decided to head back to the hotel. The taxi dumped us outside the hotel. We strolled into Sude Konak. Lucy and I have decided to go see a Turkish Night while were here. We might as well since were doing jack shit all day. We ask Bell boy to organise it for us and get us a price to one of the shows. Bell boy comes back to us with $120 Euros for the both of us. That’s fuckin $60 Euros each!!! Who the hell pays that much for a Turkish Night.

Feeling disgusted with the whole thing we leave the hotel to go to Maestro because we don’t spend enough time in there.

We were greeted by staff as we settled down at a table. We immediately ordered soup.

While enjoying our soup we started obsessing over this Asian couple. They seemed to be causing a scene:

Maestro's Asian Couple

Besides the Asian couple Maestro seemed empty. In fact it looked like the staff was waiting for us to leave to shut the place. We decided to leave and the minute we walked out they pulled the shutters down...

Now were shutting Maestro haha. Feeling a lot better we decided to crash into bed in hope of getting up for the Princes Islands tomorrow morning.