Friday, August 1: Negotiating the Istanbul Metro System

Friday, August 1: Negotiating the Istanbul Metro System

First, an update:

Yesterday I moved from Burgaz Island to Küzgüncük, my friends' home on the Asian side of Istanbul. After a week of lazing under the sun and swimming in the sea, it seemed to be time that I do some sightseeing. I've stayed in Küzgüncük once before, when I brought David, Aisha and Toshio to Istanbul in 2007, so the community and Nükte's house are familiar to me, and the neighbors in the area know me as well. It is also a short 10 minute bus ride from Beylerbeyi, where Müge lives. All in all, I feel very at home here.

I rose this morning with the plan to head to Taksim, the famous square which was the location of the May 2013 demonstration that I wrote about in a previous blog post. There are multiple ways I could have gotten there (land, sea, underground metro) but since the Istanbul metro system is new to me (recently built since my last visit), I decided to try that.

I boarded the metro train in Üsküdar, just a short bus ride from Küzgüncük. I found the station clean and modern, with lots of beautiful artwork and even a large flat screen TV to watch commercials while I waited for the train. My plan was to take the train just one stop across the Bosphorus, equivalent to traveling between West Oakland and Embarcadero on BART. So my first stop would be Sirkeci. Here's the map they displayed at the station:

That's when the confusion began. I wanted to transfer at Sirkeci to the Kabataş line so I could disembark at Taksim. How hard could that be? I've managed many difficult metro systems before (NY? Paris?) but I must say the Istanbul system had me stumped.
I found myself on the street at Sirkeci, unable to find the transfer point, so I took the above-ground tramway that I was more familiar with and found my destination that way.

Fast forward to the afternoon when I was ready to head back, I boarded the underground metro at Taksim with the intention of heading south to get as close to Eminönü as I could, but found myself disembarking at a station the doesn't even show up on this map! Can you find the Vezneciler station on the green line heading to Yenikapi? Neither can I.

I did some research on my laptop when I got home and I found no fewer than 18 different Istanbul metro maps online. EIGHTEEN. To be fair, I can see now that the Istanbul metro system is work in progress, and lines are being added all the time. Of course some of these maps were previous versions that show the limited availability of lines as they were being constructed. BUT, you'll also notice that the shapes of the maps change from version to version, and the line colors change as well. Here is a selection of my favorites:

 

This one does show the stop I got off at in Vezneciler station

Of all the Istanbul metro maps I found online, only 3 had the station that I got off at in Vezniciler. The map posted at the Üsküdar metro station was not one of them. 

Okay, on to what I actually DID today.

Today I toured Istiklal Street in Beyoglu, which is a very nice boulevard with lots of fun stores and restaurants. It is a popular tourist destination so I did see a lot of foreigners. And yes, I did buy some silly Istanbul Tchotchkes.

Sulemaniye Mosque

I also saw the breathtaking Suleymaniye Mosque. Wow. Completed in 1557 by Sinan the Architect for Süleyman the Great, it has been restored to its original state, with beautiful geometric shapes in the interior domes and the same dramatic lighting one finds in all of Istanbul's mosques.

That's me. I had to be covered in the mosque

After visiting the mosque, I made my way North to Eminönü to catch the ferry back to Üsküdar (the metro felt a bit risky at this point), and a small alleyway with some shops caught my eye. What followed was a 90 minute walk through a market area that seemed to cover a square mile, with tiny alleys that go off in different directions with any household item you can imagine for sale. 

Interested in some counterfeit dollars?

This store was entirely decorative boxes and ribbons

Need a combination safe, or a colander? How about some party favors for a children's party? Or some Turkish delight? I was lost, I thought, but emerged later not far from where I started. Go figure.

Underground passageway at Eminönü

At last, it was time to catch the ferryboat and head back to Küzgüncük, but I had one last challenge to face. Those of you who have visited Istanbul before will know that Eminönü is an extremely busy area, packed with taxis and pedestrians. The city smartly built underground passageways to get from one side of the street to another, and industrious shopkeepers opened up stores along the tunnels to entice people as they walked by. There are even public restrooms in the tunnels. I expected this. What I did not expect were the crowds. We were shoulder to shoulder, packed in, as we moved as one through the hot and sweaty space. It reached 89 degrees today at it's hottest. In the tunnels it felt more like 100. Ugh. Nükte had warned me that the crowds had gotten worse since my last visit. I finally saw it for myself.

Back at home, I was so glad to wash off the sweat from this day. It was an authentic Istanbul experience from beginning to end. :-)