Let's Go For a Walk!

Hey, let's take the boy and go for a walk. This is a nice two hour (5 km / 3 mi) walk up some hills, across a busy street, down a quiet road, through the park, exiting onto the Bosphorus, before heading back uphill and back to the complex. Let's go.

Gecekondu. These are ubiquitous in so many neighborhoods. They vary as to the "craftsmanship". This is a rather poor example. People live here though. These will suffer the most damage should any sort of mild earthquake happen.

Still working on completing that second floor. I don't know how the zoning laws apply, but this is directly across the way from the new fancy fancy building that is being constructed. Will it be torn down? Will they just orient the new building to avoid looking at this one?

Finally going downhill towards the park. This road is very busy with cars racing down and trucks and buses straining their way up. That green bus is a dolmus, a privately-owned minibus that serves more indirect routes than the city buses. This is a nice, new example. Most of them struggle to climb the hill and have frightfully squealing brakes on the downhill. It is my goal to ride in one.

After the turn-off from the busy road onto the small tree-lined road that leads to the park. Ignore the dumpster please.

It is a lovely road, but the sidewalk disappears in places and is taken over by trees in others requiring you to walk in the street around some blind corners.

The map of Emirgan Park. I'll have to put pictures of an Emirgan walk up sometime. It is a lovely, lovely park. We entered through the top and are headed for the bottom exit.

After leaving the park. Hey, there's the Bosphorus!

The shore road is extremely busy and full of cars. There are no pedestrian crossings. You have to wait for a big enough gap between cars or wait until traffic comes to a standstill before running across and squeezing in between the barrier (under the planter in this photo).

A boy on the Bosphorus. He appreciates the sights, sounds and smells, but there is nowhere for him to crawl around.

Here's a poor video of the Bosphorus.

Blue and Green water. So lovely. There is always a nice cool breeze along the water. Sometimes there are vendors selling roasted corn on the cob or simit, a ring of bread covered with sesame seeds. From here, we turn left and head north back to Istinye.

From the harbor, you have the option of staying on the flat streets and going  by the grocery store and up Interminable Hill to the lower entrance of the complex or taking the less scenic, but safer and more gradual climb back to the upper entrance of the complex. This is the latter option. So from here, you've seen everything, except in reverse. Thanks for coming!