Istanbul and a Dolmus ride

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 2 Jul 2009 19:28
Thursday 2nd July
Today was our official sightseeing day and fresh from her travels yesterday,
Sarah was altogether more confident about today's plans.

First up we took a local dolmus to the ferry port.

Now I need to explain to those of you unlucky enough to have not experienced
an Istanbul dolmus ride what it is all about.

Everywhere in Turkey has dolmus' which are quite simply a small minibus run
as a shared taxi, which sets off once all the seats are full. They run a
fixed route but with no set stops. You can flag one down anywhere (they
display the start and finish points of their route in the windscreen) and
shout when you want to get off (they stop immediately without any concern
for traffic or location)! There is a fare, but either the driver or fellow
passengers will tell you what it is. Our trip in today was with a very
talented driver who quickly showed us how he could drink coffee from a
plastic cup, hand out change for fares, conduct a conversation on a mobile
and weave at speed through fast moving traffic all at the same time. We were
sat on the twin bench seat just behind the driver which is as good a spot as
any, but it means that you become the conductor as everyone getting on then
has to pass their fare and their planned destination via you to the driver
(who has already driven off and is busy chatting and speeding and weaving)
and then pass their change back again on the move. The horn has little
discernable effect as it is used at every opportunity to indicate anything
from 'speed up' to 'slow down', 'you are in my way', 'I'm here' 'do you want
to catch this dolmus' and 'do I care'. It quickly became clear to our driver
that we had no useable Turkish and so all conversations with us were
conducted through willing third parties. This was one of the sources of
excitement all round as the driver was happiest when looking directly at
whoever he was talking to. All was OK until the chap in the front seat got
out and the conversation was now aimed at a girl in the back seat, though
thankfully he conducted this by looking in the mirror, which at least meant
that his head was facing forward!
A lad then got into the front seat and for a short while he managed to
ignore the driver's conversation, but as the speed built up and we all began
to get nervous, the lad foolishly put on his seat belt which our driver took
as a challenge. You do have to admit that a trip taking just a little under
an hour that combines transport with an adrenaline rush for just £2 a head
is very good value.

We arrived shaken and more than a little stirred at the ferry port, where we
took the trip across the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn (get out your
maps...) to Eminonu then a tram up to visit Topkapi Palace first. The palace
is wonderful and visiting the Harem there is also an absolute must - with
the added benefit that there is an extra charge which reduces the crowds.
The whole concept of the Harem has been badly misrepresented over here and
the truth is that here at the Topkapi Palace far from being a palace of
sensual delights, it may have been more of a nerve-shredding chamber of
horrors for the harem girls. We then visited 'The Cisterns' which are quite
astonishing and not at all what you might expect. A huge underground
reservoir built in 537 AD and subsequently forgotten about before being
rediscovered by a Frenchman in 1545 who noticed that local people were
getting their water by lowering buckets through holes in their basements! It
was restored fully in 1987, before which access was only by boat. (James
Bond in 'From Russia with love' rows through it.) After lunch we visited the
Sultanahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque) and finished up with a stroll through the
Spice market before catching a ferry back to Kadikoy.

This is where the fun began again as we discovered that there were no buses.
Actually there were no cars either and we realised with some concern that
there were huge steel barricades all along the far side of the street, with
squads of riot police all kitted out in full gear and several armoured water
cannons (tanks) roamed the streets whilst others remained at the ready, up
side streets. The roads were blocked by police trucks and beyond this were
armoured buses full of more police. Just as in Athens, Sarah seemed to have
found herself on the wrong side of the police lines at a major
demonstration! We tried to find out what this was all about but there seemed
to be little known by anyone. We opted to get clear of this before anything
kicked off as the Turkish riot police are not likely to be too concerned
that we were English tourists if we were in the wrong spot at the wrong
time. We made our way towards where we thought the road to Pendik might be
and visited some offices which belonged to an English teaching company and
got further advice from them as to which way to head. Finally as we cleared
the last of the police road blocks, we found a gaggle of dolmus double
parked, picking up people so we went over and asked for one heading to
Pendik. To our great surprise the vehicle we were directed towards was
driven by our driver from this morning who recognised us and welcomed us
onto his dolmus. It quickly filled up and we were off on our way home, or so
we thought....... We handed our fare to the driver at a set of red lights
(we at least tried to keep things safe) and as we sped off weaving through
the traffic with him chatting to a passenger of course, he handed us half of
it back and got passengers to explain that we were not exactly heading for
Pendik, but Boscati where we should be able to get another dolmus to Pendik!
Cue lots of laughter all round. Anyway, bless him, on arrival at Boscati, he
dropped the last passengers off, picked up a few people who were standing
nearby and off we went again. The good news was that Boscati was actually on
the direct route to Pendik anyway, so nothing was lost and we got him to
drop us off right by the marina entrance.

And we plan to go into the city again....