This is my last post from my first retirement adventure, thus I write happily home in La Honda…

Part 4, a focus on one museum and one neighborhood, came after this first batch. I should have a picture of my Istanbul Kart because, like the Opal Card in Sydney, it allows one to cheaply use multiple forms of transportation. Thus, this is rather random, sites from ferries, buses, trams, and the metro. It includes some exteriors of Dolmabahçe Palace, which, like the Princes Islands, and many other historical, cultural, or political venues (ie. cannons outside the Naval Museum), I just didn’t make it to on this trip. Alas…

I did purposefully go to the Aquaduct of Valens, an ancient Roman edifice hearkening back to 373 AD. On that excursion, I discovered a very pleasant, non-tourist street with nice local restaurants and an agglomeration of meat markets. One also encounters more mosques and the ubiquitous cemeteries around them, some inhabited by the more ubiquitous cats of Istanbul. In addition to some feral old men, there’s a shot of the Flying Horse in Fatih Memorial Park, and I guy getting a traffic ticket…

I also came across another archaeological park. Next day, made sure to visit the Pudding Shop on another excursion to Asia (ferry ride to the east side) to have a coffee at Nevmekan Sahil and see some art. Note more 100th anniversary stuff, the Maiden’s Tower, the lecturing dad, and more cats…

Not a typical tourist shot, this first one shows a woman scrounging through a dumpster, likely looking for food to feed her two street urchin children. Sadly, the cats are not the only feral creatures. More from Taksim, Istiklal (trolley), the Tunel (second oldest metro), and some public backgammon…

I had intended to move around Istanbul, maybe staying two nights in three different neighborhoods? I tried, but moving is hard, and when I was given the penthouse suite, the only room on the fifth floor, just off the restaurant, I decided to stay.

From the fifth floor of the Hotel Saba, the two nice ladies who attended to breakfast and made me some eggs, the views from my room, the restaurant, terrace, and two of the islands in the Sea of Marmara…

While 12+ hour flights can be particularly grueling, this one was great! Views of the Black Sea and the Bay Area, three movies, two great meals (love airplane food), polar route sunset thru tinted windows, fluffy clouds, and a spectacular view of San Francisco and low tide shimmers…

Gone for a bit more than a month, good times but great to be home and doing some chores. Thanks for looking at my pix. Where should I go next…?