Yesterday was boarding ship day and my go with flow was all good. Wait, stop, go, hurry up and wait some more. Go, papers, scan, walk, more paper, scan, walk. All aboard.
Simple really. The Galatea Port is amazing is all new and it’s huge. i think you can get half of you 10000 steps in before you get out. We are on the Viking Sky and it sort of reminds me a bit of the Straitsman in decor. It’s Scandinavian decor and tones. It feels familiar but it might just be being onboard a ship. It feels good.
We ditch our stuff and as our bags are still being in the wait, papers, scan queue and not as yet in our room we will go the Balat. It is touted as a must see area of Istanbul. We decide to brave the tram system as how hard can it be. Turns out quite hard. Especially when it hot, and the trams don’t have maps in them.
We walk, and walk, and walk to get out of the cruise terminal and make our way to the tram stop ticket booth. It sounded easy when we read it on the www but the reality of a machine that doesn’t have a button to change it to English is proving very difficult. A young woman approaches us to offer assistance and we hand her our money and she puts it in and gets us a card and then another, all the time casting nervous glances to the security man standing a few metres away. We thank her for her help and leave her with a tip then get on the tram.
Unfortunately after a while the tram turns the wrong way so we get off and try to work out how to go the other way. Our data is turned off as it’s ultra expensive here and we are doing without. WH asks a man sitting nearby and we spend the next 10 minutes listening to his broken English and excitement at finding that we are from New Zealand. We think someone he knows went to university there and something about teeth and something about swimming and something else……we thank him for his help and move on still clueless. I want UBER. I like Uber. Evidently it used to be here but the government decided they didn’t pay tax so it banned them. Fair enough I say. There are taxis everywhere but I don’t know how to say where i want to go and I see locals bargaining with them and we can’t bargain because we can’t speak so we walk.
We walk, and we walk and I think i mentioned it’s hot. We walk and walk and find another tram going in the direction we want. Did I mention I want Uber. I want to put in an address and push a button, and know how much its going to cost and get there. We find a tram heading in the right direction and enter the turnstile, or at least I do, but WH is stuck on the other side his wont work. The tram comes and the tram goes. Without us.
WH is taken pity on by two burka wearing ladies who help him put more money on the card for him. How did his run out? How can that be? We were on the same trip. He says I didn’t swipe but i did. We get on the tram and travel to Balat and then get off and walk and walk walk. Did I mention its hot? Did I mention I like Uber? My intrepid traveller mode is now well alight and I will succeed in my tram mission to see the brightly coloured houses in the old Jewish area.
We wander the narrow streets, dodging motorbikes, stray cats and the odd tradies van. It once again reminds me of the tale of two cities. Some of the houses are lovely and some are just a facade. The houses are very old and most are built of wood. The one on the left derelict, the middle pic with pot holes and kids playing on the road the last one with all looking ok
And then there’s the #snap, insta, tweet photo. Join the queue.
We keep wandering through and its not that pretty and sort of sad but
We turn the corner and find some stairs to take a shortcut down them to hopefully come out where we need to be. On making our way down we find a shoe shiner walking some tourist up the steps he must be taking them to the coloured houses. They tell him they have no cash only card and can’t pay him. He sighs and starts walking back down. His shoe brush drops out of his pack and Pete calls out to him and hands it back. He now wants to shine Petes shoes> “NO, NO , they are sandshoes , see, sandshoes as Pete reaches down to cover his shoes and tries to step around. The man is insistent but Pete keeps moving and we come to the bottom of the steps.
Paint the steps, set up stalls and snap, # , tweet, insta and they will come. There is a chair further up where you can pose patting a cat. There are people selling water and all sorts of wares. There is the shoe shine man wanting to shine your sand shoes. Some are tired of the snappers snapping and not buying as the pic below. You pay to take your photo.
Ok it’s not authentic tourism as such but you have to admire the entreprenuity. I have no opinion on its purpose, except looking at how some are forced to make a living I think they are clever to paint the steps and make a plan. Judge not lest you be judged. My opinion however was that it has a fascinating history of Jews who were forced from their land and the sultan gave them refuge and they built this area from mostly wood and now its back to the dreaded tram. Did i say I like Ubers. You know how much they cost, you dont have to speak the language, they aren’t hot.
The first tram stop is the same whereby I get on and WH misses because his card doesn’t work. It finally dawns on us that we were scammed. There is probably a change button which she pushed after we had gone and WH had very little money put on his card. Very entrepreneurial and we console ourselves that she would have needed the few Turkish lira far more than us. Of course we miss the stop and have to disembark and get back on the other way to retrace our steps. Then finally get off and walk the lengthy walk back to the ship. Did i mention its hot?