What I didn't know about Kadiköy

The newspapers have been printing stories about how bad the winter has been. We got quite a bit of snow last week. It became slush as it hit the ground and then, as the evening set in, turned into ice. People told me horror stories about how what was usually a one hour commute became a 5 hour one due to traffic. I am so glad I walk everywhere. Most of the snow melted yesterday (Much of it managed to leak through our ceiling and drip onto the bed in the spare room in the process). The sun was out and it looked like Spring. I suggested a trip to Kadiköy. Kadiköy is in Asia. I have been there a couple times to visit people but I've never really explored it. Roshan was enthusiastic saying that it was the best place to walk.

We took the ferry from Karaköy. Roshan bought a couple cups of salep, a hot millet drink served with cinnamon on top. It is a good choice of drink if one is going to be sitting on one of the outside decks of a ferry in January. The trip from Karaköy to Kadiköy is a short one with one stop in Haydarpasha, one of Istanbul's train stations. Just before reaching Haydarpasa, the boat goes by what I assume must be the main cargo transfer point for trains and ships. I thought it was a very cheerful looking industrial area with all its freshly painted metal cargo boxes.

I had no idea that there was a huge pedestrian area in Kadiköy. Across from the ferry docks there are lots of small winding streets filled with cafes, restaurants, used book stores, music stores, food shops, bakeries, antiques shops and merchants selling everything else one might need. I also spotted an Armenian and a Greek church. As we entered the market area we found ourselves behind a couple sock salesmen dragging their wares to their selling location.

On another street we found a baker who sold bags of fresh tomato, spinach and egg pasta. I was very excited about this because I haven't seen tomato and spinach pasta for quite a while. Next we went to a very cool pasaj. The upstairs was full of bookstores. The downstairs was full of music stores. Apparently, there is a large heavy metal population in Kadiköy. Most of the music stores were cranking heavy metal, however, they generally had a good selection of other "alternative" music too. To make this basement heavy metal haven complete, there was a tattoo parlor and a dark grungy cafe. We opted to eat elsewhere.

Back on the street, we headed to a cafe we'd passed earlier. The downstairs had a woman sitting in the window making gözleme and folding manti in the traditional Turkish manner. Upstairs it was an internet cafe. After a nice lunch of lentil soup and gözlemes we took a walk along the water front. All along the shore there is a long park with a wide concrete path on the water. A large portion of the path been broken into pieces during the earthquake. 10 foot wide jagged slabs of concrete were sticking out from the rocks below. The remaining part of the path had some vicious looking cracks in it. Orange barrier tape had been put up to keep people from walking on the dangerous parts but it had been pulled down and trampled so now it was more or less ignored.

A little ways down the coast, there was a small hill. On the top of the hill were several tea gardens. We found one that made Turkish coffee (they did a good job too!) and sat outside watching the sun sparkling on the Sea of Marmara. As it started to set, we walked back up the shore to the ferry dock.