Pia and I outside Salutation Gate at Topkapi Palace, our first stop for the day.
The Imperial Council Building at the palace.
Details of the mosque inside.
Pia and I inconveniently standing in front of the amazing view from the Palace.
Breathtaking views of the Bosphorus River.
Just one of the 400 rooms in the harem: the living quarters of the palace.
All the photos above are from the Harem, both our favourite part of the palace.
3 hours later, we'd successfully covered nearly all the palace grounds (we think) and headed to lunch. Our plan was to take a ferry across the Bosphorus River to explore the Asian side so we found a nice little döner restaurant and met the very friendly owner and staff (they called themselves Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise). They explained to us through broken English that the best way to get to the Asian side was by underground train.
Traditional dolma: small long eggplants cut in half, hollowed out, then put on strings and dried out in the sun.
A little park where we rested en route to the Bogaziçi Bridge which we thought would take us back to the other side. However, we found out from some locals that there was no pedestrian access...
While deciding what to do next, a very friendly Turkish family started talking to us helping us understand that the only way to get back to the other side was to walk back to Üsküdar pier and take a ferry from there. We thanked them and they left heading back home.
But moments later we heard shouting from behind us on the street and saw the same family indicating from their car (that was holding up a lot of traffic at this point, and motorists were starting to beep) that they would give us a lift to the pier. In that instant, we made the snap decision to trust them, and hopped in the car (Pia, myself, a woman and a little boy squished into the back and a man, another lady and a little girl, in the front). We resembled a clown show car act.
We were heading back towards the pier when all of a sudden Kar (the father we later found out) turned left, away from where we thought we were going. We started heading up a hill and ended up in a huge park. At this moment we must admit, we were a bit confused as to what just happened however this family were so nice that we decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Luckily we did, because what followed was an unforgettable experience. They led us down towards the water, through the beautiful park (we later found out was called Cemilbey Woods) and bought us lunch at a patio restaurant perched overlooking the Bosphorous. We talked and laughed, somehow breaking through the language barrier and learning a lot about each other.
After lunch, we thought we would just head back to the pier however we realised that two of the family members were fasting for Ramazan and they asked us to join them for dinner as well. We tried so hard to let them know we didn't want to impose (which ended up making the situation more confusing) but they were very persistent so we ended up staying.
Again, we are so thankful we did as the sunset from the same place we'd eaten earlier was absolutely beautiful. They explained to us the concept of Ramazan and showed us how to eat köfte (meatballs) and drink aryan (a salty yoghurt drink) the local way. We laughed and talked, sharing photos of family and learning about each other's lives. We played with the two kids; arm wrestling, thumb wars, making daisy chains and origami.
Their kindness didn't stop there as they dropped us back to our hotel (an hour away and by this time it was 10:30PM), especially considering they would have to be up at 2:50AM to eat breakfast before dawn.
We can't thank them enough for such an incredible day. We had such an unforgettable experience getting to know this Turkish family. It was a beautiful way to spend our last night in Istanbul and a wonderful start to our travels through Europe.
