After the metro and the walk through the city we got thoroughly lost in the back streets trying to remember where to catch a tram ... but eventually we stumbled across it. We managed to get off again at the right stop, and wandered around a bit until we found the train.
It wasn't very exciting - not like the old funicular railway in the Blue Mountains (Australia) that dives straight down over the cliff ... But it was a whole lot better than walking up the hill.
We were pleased to discover that our travel pass was effective here too. It was the only time anyone actually looked at our pass.
At the top of the hill was a pleasant park. And it was a beautiful Spring day. People were lying around on the grass, playing with kids, walking dogs. We began to wish we had brought a picnic lunch.
We found the tower without too much difficulty.
We were glad that it had a it of a kiosk at the bottom, so we had our lunch, and enjoyed the view from the hill. There was a lift to travel up, for a price, or stairs ... but suddenly we decided we had had enough. So we didn't go up the tower. There was a WC in the basement (we had to pay for that) and then we wandered briefly around the sad little museum that was also down there.
Going Home to Istanbul
Our flight was not until 8.45p, but the hotel man was concerned that we shouldn't be in traffic around 5pm. So we went and had our last meal at our favourite restaurant in Ceskamoravska. and then got back to the hotel for our ride to the airport at 4pm.
Even though it wasn't yet peak hour the traffic was slow and it took a good hour to get to the airport. We had to cross the river, but the bridge our driver had planned to use was closed for repairs, and that slowed us down - and everyone else who obviously wanted to use the bridge. What surprised me about all of this (after our recent experiences in China, especially, as well as Istanbul) was how patiently the traffic (well, the drivers) waited. And the man's mobile phone kept ringing, but he did not seem in the least tempted to answer it - in fact after a few minutes he did reach out to touch it, and turned it off. (I've seen drivers in China managing two phones and sounding their horn and eating and smoking while driving ...)
At the airport we had all the time in the world. And we managed to find the right check-in counter first-up. The young lady asked us whether we would be buying visas when we arrived in Istanbul, and we showed her our residents visas. She frowned and phoned someone, apparently quite puzzled that two people with Australian passports should also be Turkish residents. Finally she nodded and smiled and handed us our papers and we were on our way. A very brief security check let us into the departure area where we sat around and waited for our flight.
We arrived back in Istanbul a few minutes after midnight, showed our passports at the counter, grabbed our bags, and walked out. There were taxis waiting, and we had no trouble telling them where we live. By 1am we were back in our own bed in our apartment in Bakırköy.
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