So has nine nights and eight days in Istanbul been too long?

Not at all! There are still places we haven’t been and things we haven’t seen, but we have experienced quite a deal. It is an amazing city, and we are glad we listened to our friend Bel’s advice. She had visited the city and assured us we weren’t planning on staying for too long.

Our morning started with riding the trams again – we are very confident in doing that. This trip involved getting off one tram line (T1) and walking a few hundred metres near Eminonu Station to catch the newest tram line (T5) to Balat– a suburb on the edge of the Golden Horn, still on the European side of the city, famous for its coloured houses. Once off the tram, down near the water’s edge, it looked as though we had been led astray by the tourist brochures – it was a pretty dodgy-looking area. When I looked on Google maps – the neighbourhood we were after was still quite a walk away, and involved climbing quite a few steps. Mick was not so keen.

Instead, we chose to walk back towards Eminonu, through the neighbourhood of Fener, which turned out to be a great idea. Again, so much to see.

We have both enjoyed drinking Turkish tea during our stay, but we needed to be shown the first time how to. Strong tea is stored in a teapot above a pot of boiling water. You pour a small amount of the strong tea into a glass, and then top it up with the hot water. No milk – and even Mick has coped with that.

We passed lots of sidewalk cafes and European-Turkish bistros, along with boutiques and shops located in converted old buildings.

And then, eventually we spotted some colourful houses – not quite the same as the ones I had seen online – but still very cute.

We headed towards the waterfront, along its walking paths and passed a ferry terminal that offers connections down the Golden Horn and across to the city’s Asian side. But we were looking for the tram to get us back to Sultanahmet, as we had another activity planned for later in the day.

We were both going to experience a Hamam. This time in a less up-market establishment, more aimed at the locals, and possibly not as pampering as the one I had on our first day in the city.

We both presented together at the Historical Sultanahmet Bath, opened in 1710, near where we had dinner two nights ago. It advertised a Full Program (scrubbing, body washing, soap massage [20 minutes], oil massage [20 minutes] and sauna) for 1600 lira each. That was way cheaper than I had paid for my fist hamam experience, and included massages which were not included in my fancy one. I thought, and hoped, that the sauna might help Mick’s chest.

Once we entered and paid for our service in cash, we were seated and given a glass of very hot tea and told “10 minutes”. There was no paperwork here to sign regarding liability and waivers – it was definitely “at one’s own risk” here.

This experience was much more intense than my first one.

Mick and I were taken to a small room together and told to prepare for our baths. We were given a Turkish towel and some slip-on shoes to wear. That was it.

We were then taken to a small sauna room together where we spent a good 15 minutes sweltering, and yes, sweating. The temperature rose to over 70C degrees, but luckily it was only the two of us in there.

Following this ‘pre-roasting’ session, we were separately taken through arched doorways and tunnels into a washing room – one for men and one for women. Asked to lie down face first, very warm water was poured over me (I must say, my favourite part of the process). And then the scrubbing began. My lady used a loofa glove and an enormous amount of force. I kept thinking that if I had used that much effort scrubbing the steps at the boarding school I attended for a few years, the nuns would have been very pleased. Following this, the pillowcase technique to make fine bubbles took place, covering me in bubbles. Then more scrubbing and only a little bit of massaging.

I was escorted into a room where Mick was and got a bit of a shock when I passed a man exiting that room wearing only a towel. I said “that is not my husband!” – but she just kept pushing me through the door. Mick was not quite finished his washing, but when he was we both were asked to lie on our backs on a large warm stone slab. We stayed there for another 15+ minutes. This room, like the first one, had domes with circular holes for windows, allowing natural light to fill the space.

Finally we were separately taken to a small room where the oil massage took place. This was not too intense – I found it quite relaxing.

There was no ‘relaxation room’ in this establishment, once we were finished we just had to get dressed and get out of there. We had spent 2 hours there and we both needed a little rest later in the day.

Verdict – well worth the experience.

We called into an eczane (chemist) to see if we could buy some night and day cold and flu pills for Mick – we had only packed enough for 5 days, and the night time ones had been helping us both get a full night’s sleep. The shop assistant was able to speak English and told us that Turkey does not have access to those pills. She knew of them, but all Mick could buy was some daytime tablets. Luckily he seems on the mend.

We dined at Olden 1772, a fancy restaurant located in a restored 250 year-old caravanserai (inn) in Eminonu. Our friends from Brisbane had dined here 12 months ago and had loved it. But, after reading very mixed reviews, from terrible to amazing, I was going there with an open mind and a sense of optimism. Having said that, the meal needed to beat last night’s.

We were a little early, but that did not matter. We were given a great table that allowed us to do some people watching while we decided what we wanted to eat.

One thing we observed here was very disconcerting – and what I’m about to write is the truth, the absolute truth. For the first 25 minutes we were there, two young attractive women sat at their table, having finished a cup of coffee each, and took photos of each other at the rate of at least one per second. The posing was nauseating, but the length of time that they did it for was worse. But then when they left, a couple, a man and a woman, was seated and she took photos of him, pretty much no stop. Both pairs used a new technique for us: the side-ways-I’m-not-interested look, but over and over, and then the photos would be checked to see if they were good enough. I’m sure it would be for social media accounts and perhaps the young women were ‘influencers’ – but it was off-putting. But there was more – a woman sat down near us and her friend took photos of her while she was looking ? …. yes, somewhere else??

What is going on??

Meanwhile – Mick and I did take a photo – but we made a mistake. We looked at the camera, and we only took one.

Anyway – the meal was fantastic. I tried a salad as a starter made from a plant that I had never heard of – purslane – which was fantastic, and Mick had carpaccio beef. For mains I had seafood linguine (which turned out to be spaghetti), and Mick had dry-aged beef cooked rare. All meals were excellent.

We also used this opportunity to taste some different Turkish wines. And the winner of the night was a chardonnay that I had selected.

But, was it as good as our meal the previous evening?

Definitely.

Tomorrow we have an early start. We have booked a taxi for 8am to take us to the airport for the next leg of our around the world trip. There is a taxi depot 50m from our hotel, and when we checked earlier today if the owner still had us booked in, he said “Yes! Yes!”. We booked directly with him because our hotel was going to charge 50 Euros each – this way we saved $100AUD, which helped to cover the price of our dinner and wines tonight.

Farewell Istanbul!