Today I crossed Golden Horn to walk around Galata quarter. Tre huge Taxim Square was full of red flags and police barriers before tomorrow’s national holiday. Long pedestrian street – Istiklal has elegant shops. Entrance to the Galata Tower costs hefty 100 lira and there was long line in front of the ticket office… I was wandering quiet long time narrow and steep streets to find the house – museum where biggest Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz passed away in 1855. This quarter has its color with clothes hanging between the houses, porters carrying loads of goods and little workshops. The house-museum is not so impressive, but important for the Poles.
In the afternoon I crossed again Galata Bridge with hundreds people fishing from the bridge, some of them had quiet big catch. I walked uphill to the impressive Suleymanije Mosque (free entry) to enjoy again nicely decorated interior. Local people are coming here to pray, but nobody is complaining about the presence of the tourists inside.
Any visit to Istanbul is not completed without crawling the alleys of Kapali Carsi – the big, covered bazaar so I went also there to refresh the memories. Lovely day!
