Seek and ye shall find, or not.

Morning. Did I already mention my bed?  It’s huge, firm with a topper that is as soft as a marshmallow and hugs me to sleep at night. I love it. 

Todays mission was to find that suburb with all the bakeries that sat between the train station cross over points. I have studied the metro map and I was pretty sure that I knew which of the two possibilities it would be. 

So off I set to the metro station not 100m from the hotel and next minute my trustee Istanbul card had been swiped and I was on the train. 

We passed through some lovely suburbs and it seemed each area had a specialty around which the suburb revolved; fabrics, women’s clothes etc. 

We get to what I thought was the right train station and pretty soon realised there were no tracks to cross and in fact not one food place in close proximity. This was a ladies wear suburb. 

I resisted checking out the shops, bought another dry yuk Simit and then went back to the station so I could catch the same train back to another possibility. 

I think I give up on the Simit search now. Three so far and I haven’t enjoyed any. Preston market in Melbourne you are now top of my Simit list. 

It was packed but a middle aged gent kindly offered me a seat. I declined and indicated to a woman behind him dressed in black abeya, head scarf etc and looked old. On closer inspection she was probably only about 50 but all good. 

Eventually someone left and I scored a seat to study the map and formulate the next plan. 

Pretty much all the women on the train were wearing headscarves with many in abeya as well. Then there was me. I did get a lot of odd looks and felt uncomfortable but there is no way I could cope with this heat with more clothes on. 

I left my seat in plenty of time to get off at the next station so squashed in I was nearly passing out. The train stops, we wait, there is an announcement (in Turkish so I have no idea) we wait. There is a second announcement. 
Everyone starts moving off the train onto the tracks and we walk in the direction of the nearby station like a swarm of bees each of us propelling the other. The rudest light a smoke, the screaming starts. I am starting to feel apprehensive getting moved along a like a conveyor belt with no destination. 

Eventually I break free. The train remains stationary. No one cares what happened, they just start piling into another stationary train. I head in the direction of food.

I am there now waiting for my ham and cheese toasted sandwich which I have been dreaming of for days. 

I am still not in the right suburb so maybe my search is looking for something I dreamed. Who knows. It hasnt been a wasted morning. I have enjoyed passing through some of the residential areas and getting a faint glimpse into the lives of the locals. 

My ham n cheese sandwich arrives. It has lost the ham but gained fries and a salad so I am happy. Its amazing how even someone who is so food focussed can often dream of the most basic. MY cheese on toast as soon as I get home. 

There is loud turkish music playing in the cafe as I eat my ham-less toastie. The song is competing with a call to prayer coming from the speakers on the building next door. A cacophony far from the haunting call to prayer I love to hear. 

I ended up walking most of the way home, it was all downhill and I managed to stay in the shade. A beer at a stop half way gave me the fuel to keep going till I hopped on the metro for the last three stops.  

Nap time. 

It was 7:00pm and still broad daylight outside when I went in search of kokoreç. Lamb entrails marinated with herbs, seasoning and lemon juice, then threaded onto a spit before it is all tied together with intestines. It’s one of my favourite meals, hard to find now in Greece and even here not so prevalent. But I was lucky enough to find some in my neighbourhood. Now I am in heaven. Here they serve it in a bun which I could have done without but nevertheless it was mouthwateringly good. Im glad I will have the chance for another before I go. 

As I wander round the neighbourhood I discover more and more wee gems. Flower shops, butcheries (Kasabi), fruit n veg tucked away in little lanes, more bars, cafes and restaurants than should be allowed in one suburb and some hole in the wall fish wrap places that had queues round the block. 

I was still a bit hungry so after wandering all the lanes around ‘home’ I settled at the Koskeroglou bakery next to the hotel. 

They don’t have a written menu but just a QR code to be able to view the menu. Of course if you are like me with no signal you cant scan the QR code without wifi and we dont want to give you wifi. Ok three choices:

Give me wifi

Give me menu

I leave - I now have wifi. Its a shame because I didn’t enjoy the baklava as it was totally floating in sugar syrup and my Apricot juice came in the form of a can of warm juice labelled nectarine juice. Oh well it filled my tum and finished off my evening. I was impressed by the dexterity of the waiters who carried with one hand everything on trays. 

So far the only mission I have successfully completed was having the kokoreç this evening. I am looking forward to a food adventure tomorrow. 

As an aside you may have noticed the absence of any visits to tourist places. I did them all on my last trip; Blue Mosque, Agia Sofia, the Cisterns, a pile of mosques, palaces and the like. All amazing but once is enough. My favourite the Süleymaniye Mosque can be seen from my neighbourhood.