Pendik Marina, Istanbul
Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 2 Jul 2009 18:55
Very dull day as we spent most of it doing various jobs and
cleaning/polishing!
Wednesday 1st July.
I stayed on board getting various long term jobs done whilst Sarah made the
first trip into the centre of Istanbul with a view to a bit of retail
therapy and the odd art museum.
For anyone looking to sail to Istanbul, Pendik Marina is clearly going to be
a very good port of call, especially if you have visitors flying in or you
intend flying out, using Istanbul - Sabiha Gökçen airport. The shops and
development all around us is going to be very upmarket and doubtless the
price will soon move up to reflect this. Frustratingly for us, the place is
still under construction and the key bit unfinished is the toilet and shower
block! Well it is finished, but is awaiting inspection by some authority
prior to opening so we can see how wonderful they are, but cannot actually
use them.
The other set back to coming here is the journey into Istanbul itself. To
get to the main attractions (more about them later) you need to take a
dolmus to Kadikoy (more about that as well!), then a ferry to Eminonu on the
European side. Nothing too complicated, but you do need both a sense of
adventure and a sense of humour to make the trip!
[Sarah] My trip in started well in that I got to Kadikoy, where I was pretty
much ejected from the dolmus in a sea of traffic, close to the ferry. Then
caught the ferry to Eminonu on the European side of Istanbul, south of the
Golden Horn - all of this taking about 1 and 3/4 hours which was a longer
than I expected, so nerve-wracking. I then walked up to the Sultanahmet
area, being accosted by an enthusiastic carpet-seller who took umbrage at a
polite 'no' and threw a stone at my shoulder as walked on! This was
followed by a far slicker and enticing hard sell, being lead off for
watermelon to a carpet shop where I was almost inveigled into buying a
beautiful kilim (price started at £2030 and came down to £500!). After
resisting this, the Grand Bazaar was a doddle! Fascinating, covered
interconnecting alleyways, up the side of the hill and - like all shopping
in Turkey - different areas sell one type of goods: leather, gold or
silver, antiques, clothes, fabric etc etc.
I then set off on a tram across the bridge over the Golden Horn towards the
quite wonderful Modern Art Museum (Ataturk was very active in encouraging
the arts and this appears to have been one of his babies). Then back on
the tram to catch the funicular up the hill from Karankoy in search of a
jewellery shop billed in the Lonely Planet as selling "inspired originals
... combining scraps of ethnic eastern jewellery". Devastatingly, design
has moved on (Rob only too delighted) - and if I had known, perhaps I would
have paid more attention at the Grand Bazaar!
The return trip was not so successful: ferry to Kadikoy but accidentally
got out at the stop before (which didn't feature on the inward trip); found
the dolmus and minibus station which turned out to be the bus park, but one
of the drivers very obliging drove me to the station where I felt beholden
to stay on the minibus which are cheaper (but it turns out cheaper equals
considerably longer journey in time and distance - ie at least twice the
original journey, and we are talking of a saving of 50%, or 2.5 lira - a
pound!) eventually being deposited in an unknown area of Pendik at 7.15pm.
But all in all a very successful day - Istanbul is like nowhere else I have
ever been to, it really is quite wonderful in every sense of the word.