Just as we were leaving the cafe off Istiklal street we heard some loud chanting. We went to the Main Street and saw a huge crowd of people coming down the street - the protesters. They had a small banner and were marching toward Taksim. Our waiter said - watch out for the police, they can be dangerous. We couldn't see the end of the line and really needed to head back to meet our group, so we took a side alley and headed down the hill. This is one set of steps that we avoided by taking the funicular up to Taksim. This is probably on about 1/3 of the way up from this view.
We passed the Italian consulate in the back alley and decided we didn't need to worry about our safety if the consulate was in this location.
Mosque on the way. They are on practically on every corner.
We reached the waterfront and walked along to our rendezvous point with the rest of our group.
There was a carnival feel to the waterfront with this vendor selling cotton candy and bubble blowing kits!
We hung out near a major bus terminal waiting for our group bus to come by on its way from the Bazaar to our host family dinner. GREAT people watching place! It was a bit sad to see a mother with her two young children that she was sending out to beg in the traffic. The girl (approx 8) would actually press her face up against the windows of cars and as they would inch forward in traffic she would stay pressed up against the car. There were also wedding parties that were passing on their way to waterfront receptions on the local pier, as well as locals heading home on the nearby tram. After about a 30 minute wait we met our bus!
No comments:
Post a Comment