The Caucasus - a bit of this and a bit of that

Doesn’t it pee you off when you wake up miles before your alarm. Wide awake and ready to go, but its Sunday morning and I am leaving today. Before that I have a massage booked. I even contemplated going to breakfast for something to do.  But that didn’t happen and I faffed around till it was massage time. This massage place is one recommended to be by Esin and is in the building annexed to the mosque not 50m from the hotel. Couldn’t be better.  Going through the archway at the front of the building then through the massive big doors I had no idea what I would find. The last hammam I had in Turkey was in a local place with no frills and where I shared a steam room with a sleazy looking guy. The place I am now has women only sessions in the morning and then men after 4:00pm so using up a morning on the day I have to vacate my room seemed like a great idea but the thought of hot steam when I am struggling with the heat was too much for me. Thus my booking is for a mas...

Today I started off grabbing a cab, (uber which use yellow taxis and super cheap) and going to the Jewish/Greek neighbourhoods of Fener and Balat. They were actually quite close to where I was yesterday I just became impatient a little too early.   I am not sure what I expected but seeing things typically Jewish/Greek was definitely there on my list. Bus loads and throngs of tourists and souvenir shops was not.  Consequently my search for Latkes (jewish potato cakes) was fruitless but I did pass a couple of Greek churches and saw a shop named after some Greek dude.  From afar at the top of a hill I could see the massive Fener Greek Orthodox College, known in Greek as the Great School of the Nation and Patriarchal Academy of Constantinople, is the oldest surviving and most prestigious Greek Orthodox school in Istanbul. The school, like all minority schools in Turkey, is a secular school.  It goes back to the 15th century and from what I could see is quite...

I’m not sure where I was headed when I left the hotel this morning but my day started well with confirmation of an upgrade from Tokyo to Auckland on AirNZ. I had made the lowest possible offer and really didn’t expect it to come through. I suppose that means the flight is half empty and I could have stretched out anyway but all good thanks. I’ll take that.   At some stage in the morning I decided to head to the Jewish/Greek quarters and with my trusted metro map in hand off I went. Well I wont bore you with the details but after walking in the heat for over an hour I ended up close to where I started and on the wrong side of the Golden Horn. Once again everyone I asked had me turning here, going straight there, going right, going left. Turns out they were all wrong. I should have relied on my map app but after yesterday I was loathe to do that again.  I was right near the cable car stop for Istikal St so off I went. This is a street, probably 2km long that is wall t...

Through the uber app I grabbed a yellow cab for my trip to the starting point of a food tour. My yellow cab driver was a nice guy who smokes whilst driving, something I hadn’t struck before.   He dropped me at the Carrefours Supermarket as per the address I had given him (from the tour company). When I got there it didn’t seem like a spot that a tour would start from so I showed the address to the man stacking the onions who told me I was in the wrong place I should go ‘over there’ as he waves his hand. So I use maps.com to direct me to the other Carrefours and off I set. In the meantime I rang Esin, the tour guide, to tell her I may be late and why. Lucky I am the only person on the tour so she can wait.  I walked for a couple of k asking people along the way for directions to Carrefours and it wasn’t till I realised that they were sending me on a wild goosechase that I rang Esin again.  A lovely lady in a swanky hotel helped me order another cab to take me to...