Erika's Walk along the water in Üsküdar

I read in our guidebook that besides lots of mosques built by sultans who liked the location for its being on the eastern side closest to Mecca, there is a hilltop park in Üsküdar called Büyük Çamlıca supposedly a 20 minute walk away or a short bus ride, that offers beautiful views of the surrounding city and is very popular with the locals and since I didn't want to spend the entire time in the hotel room by myself while Luis was at his meetings I decided I would ask the hotel guys at the desk about the park and how to get there. It was there that I had this interaction: After I asked the two men at the desk about the park and they figured out what I was talking about (they had no idea from the way I pronounced it) the shy young dark haired hotel guy I was talking to was overtaken by a much larger and more boisterous one. "No, absolutely not. You cannot go there." he said. Then the shy guy echoed him. "Yes, yes it is impossible." "....um ok...." "No, no no it's too far, very far. You will go to the old city. There is nothing to see here, you will take the ferry and go to Sultanahmet." "Ok, but I wanted to see that park or something here in Üsküdar." He gave me a strange look. "There is nothing here." "Well, I don't really want to go take the ferry by myself." Here he looked offended. "Why you don't want to go by yourself? It is easy! It takes ten minutes. I am not from here. I am from another city in Turkey, so I know what you mean, but I do it all the time! You will go there. All the historic buildings are there. You will see the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia! etc etc" "No, what I mean is I didn't want to see those places without my husband. He is at a conference." I was starting to get frustrated. "You can see it without him it is easy. You go it takes ten minutes..." This all seemed to go on for quite a while until he finally gave up and we settled it that I would go to a palace called Beylerbeyi a short "minibus" ride away from there. Despite the fact that I didn't know what a minibus was I said I would go, but that first I needed to get something to eat because it was lunch time. And so I found myself outside in the sunny blue sky busy world full of people going about their daily business in Üsküdar. I have to admit that I felt very overwhelmed by how different everything was, but at the same time I did feel safe. The fresh baked sesame smell of simit rings for sale by street vendors was very tempting and I only wished I had Turkish money to spend on them. On an earlier walk I had found a restaurant that was in the guidebook called Kanaat Lokantasi and I really wanted to try it. It looked very busy and full of locals. The set up of attractive desserts on one side and delicious freshly prepared vegetable dishes in metal vats on the other was enough to get me to overcome my shyness. I withdrew some Turkish lira and got inside. I found the one guy in the restaurant who spoke english and I got myself a delicious plate covered in vegetables, a giant artichoke, some potatoes, a stuffed pepper, a vine leaf stuffed with rice and some tasty eggplant in olive oil. It was a noisy busy place. Waiters went around bringing people tea and water and one cheerful old man came around with a pencil and pad of paper writing out receipts watching what people drank and what different foods they had on their plates. At one point a man with a beard came in and everybody in the restaurant took notice. Several people from the restaurant stopped eating and the staff kissed the man on the cheeks. Must be a religious figure? I came back later for dessert and tea. I had a warm plate of semoulina with a different tasting ice cream on top. It was like a solidified couscous with a honey taste. It was very good. I had a hard time finishing it since they gave me such a big serving. I didn't know which dessert to choose so I asked the man at the counter what dessert was the most popular. "All are popular!" he proudly declared. So I asked him what his favorite was, and ended up with semoulina and ice cream. I love the idea of this nice plump man in his white apron luxuriating in his favorite dessert at the end of the day. The pictures here are from my walk along the water after lunch.