The End Of Our Week In Istanbul

Today we finished off our week in Istanbul with a visit to the Ortaköy neighborhood to try Kumpir – the biggest stuffed potato you can imagine.  The bus ride had us scared for our lives,  but it was a worthwhile trip…

The hotel staff had told us to take bus 25E from the Kabataş distrct to Ortaköy, but when we got on the bus we realized that, unlike on the tram, you have to request your stop so you have to know where you’re going!  Luckily, the person sitting across from us spoke English and helped us out.  We also discovered that bus rides in Istanbul are nerve wracking because bus drivers here don’t find it necessary to obey traffic laws – our bus continuously ran red lights and cut other traffic off!  Making matters worse, the bus was so full that people were seriously squeezed together like sardines in a can.  And the bus didn’t stop at stops for very long so people had to hop on and squeeze themselves in as the bus slowly pulled away from the stop.  I would hate to be standing by the door because it often swings open before the bus reaches the stop and stays open as the bus merges back into traffic!

The Ortaköy neighborhood wasn’t anything spectacular, but Ortaköy pier square is situated right on the Bosphorus strait near the Bosphorus Bridge, so it looks quite pretty.  Walking to the pier, we immediately found the row of kumpir restaurants Ilyas had told us about.  We walked the entire row to check out what kind of toppings they offered, but every stall seemed to have the same thing so we went back to the first one we saw when walking in.  We decided to get one potato each from stall #1 and #2 so we could compare, but ended up picking different toppings so it wasn’t really a fair comparison.  Both potatoes were delicious, but I think my potato filled with everything (olives, pickles, cous cous, corn, cheese, sausage, and some other unknown items) from stall #2 was better than Paul’s which didn’t have any veggie toppings.  If you like stuffed potatoes, you must try a kumpir in Turkey!  But be forewarned, it’s huge – we were both full after half of our potatoes.  Despite how good it tasted, I seriously could not eat more.  I ended up walking around all of Ortaköy trying to find a stray cat to feed my leftover potato to, but the stupid cats ran away from me whenever I approached them!  But having the potato in my hand as we walked around was handy because it prevented restaurant owners from soliciting us as we walked

Our week in Istanbul has flown by, especially since Paul has been so busy with work.  The food has been great, the people have been nice (even the ones who swear we must be Japanese), and it’s been a relatively inexpensive week.  We’ve had to skip some stuff (like going into Topkapi Palace and the Archaeology Museum) because of Paul’s schedule, but we’ll definitely be coming back to Istanbul/Turkey at some point to explore more!