21-Feb-2023
Our hotel does an excellent breakfast buffet, which launched Day 3 really beautifully. (I wonder whether one of the reasons we feel so at home in this country is the Turkish dedication to breakfast, our favourite meal...)
Just a small sampling of the amazing spread on offer
Feeling nicely rotund, we set out on what turned out to be a top-notch walk of almost 15 km.
Great weather. Just a light breeze, the temperature climbing to 13/14 degrees (very comfortable for sitting outside), and the haze giving way to blue skies.
First up, the route to Fenerbahce Park:
This is to honour Sadun Boro, wife Oda, and cat Mico, who circumnavigated the globe in 1965-68 in a 10.5-metre boat
These sculptures recreate a scene from the 1961 movie Kucuk Hanimefendi (Little Lady) by Nejat Saydam. It tells the story of a young woman "surrounded by evil relatives who try forcefully to take control of her inheritance until she is saved by the young son of a fallen aristocratic family". Ahh, they don't make them like that any more
And here we have a piece by Yahya Kemal (1884-1958), a highly influential figure in Turkish poetry. It's a very lovely evocation of the "great emerald" that is Fenerbahce Park
Views from the park
By now we're heading back into town:
"Cingirli's Garden", a former mansion built on land acquired by the Levantine Cingria family in the 1870s
Another interesting sculpture
Lunch at Ekspres Inegol Koftecisi. These are the kofte. We also ordered soup, salad, and ayran, and nobly waved away the bread
And on again:
Memorial to Ali Suavi (1839-78), political activist, scientist, journalist, and writer
Cool street scenes
Apple pie at the appropriately named FatCat
FatCat's terrace. Spot the cat?
And home via Antique Street
The cats were a great source of entertainment today. Maybe it was the weather. Certainly, they seemed more ubiquitous than ever, and extra-perky. They were the icing on top of a real cake of a day: