Today Asia

Today morning I made my way to Asia.

But first I stopped by the hostel where I had gotten excellent coffee yesterday. The landlady had recommended the apple tea to me, which I wanted to try today.

The waiter today made it clear to me that this is a hostel and not a café. The owner of the house apparently noticed and came out, saying that of course I would get a tea.

And it was so delicious. When I had drunk about half of the tea, the house cat came over to me naturally, jumped onto my lap, and decided to take a nap. At some point, I had finished my tea and actually wanted to move on. But what can you do? The cat was still asleep!

After a short time, however, a bird caught the cat's attention, and she jumped after it. My day was saved.🤗

So I continued to the taxi stand. I approached one of the taxi drivers, he wanted 200 lira, the next one as well, I declined and walked to the ferry terminal instead. Yesterday, I had paid 150 lira for double the distance, which was actually too expensive. For my first taxi ride, I paid 45 lira for almost the same distance.

For conversion, 1€ is about 20 lira.

When I arrived at the ferry harbor, I was faced with a dilemma. The ticket machines were in Turkish and didn't want to communicate with me. My rescue was a Turkish boy of about ten years old, who had probably observed my struggle and came to help me. Once you know how it works, it's quite simple. You get an Istanbul card for 25 lira, load it with 25 lira, and then you can use the entire public transportation system, including the ferries. There's a turnstile at the entrance to each mode of transportation, you place the card on it, the fare is deducted, and the turnstile opens. Great thing! Of course, I gave the young man a generous tip, at least by his standards.

After about a 15-minute ride, I arrived in Asia, quite funny.

In the small area that I explored, it was completely different from the European part of the city. Much fewer tourists, many locals, and above all, young, alternative people.

Even the bazaars were tailored to the locals. Very little tourist kitsch, instead tools, fruit, vegetables, and fish, all mixed with many cafés and restaurants.

Even the traffic seemed calmer. Much fewer honking horns and attempts to adhere to traffic rules, at least to some extent.

I didn't explore any great sights. It was simply too humid and there was too much smog in the air, an unhealthy mixture that only improved after an afternoon rain shower.

So I took the ferry back, then the tram to Sultan Ahmed Park, and finally to the hotel, where I had to dry off from sweating so much.

Tonight, I strolled through a bazaar again and had a delicious meal to end the day.

Tomorrow, I will venture out into the "horrible traffic," as one of the taxi drivers called it, with a motorcycle.