3 Stikes and You’re Out

First order of the day -find the carpet museum:

We’ve passed a sign numerous times telling us the carpet museum is 1 minute walk away but have never seen a carpet museum building. Finally, we ask a nearby tour seller. He points to the building behind us and tells us the museum has been closed for three years!

Leaving the area, we kept our eyes out for a post office box where we could mail our postcards. We found this one with an odd inscription. Are our cards going to make it?

Second order of the day – head over to visit the Orhan Pamuk Museum of Innocence – by the way, Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish Nobel Literature Price winner for his work as an author and a book called Istanbul. He opened a museum we wanted to visit. It was a bit of a trek that included a tram ride, a funicular ride, a stroll through Taksim Square, and a walk through an area well known for antiques called Beyoglu.

The museum was closed:! https://www.masumiyetmuzesi.org

Strike 1

So, next on our marked list was a hamam, a Turkish bath. We happened to have one marked on our map that was one of the oldest in the city and also the only one that allowed men and women in at the same time. Yes, success at last. After turning left, turning right, backtracking, and asking a few locals, we found it. Outside the building was the tariff sheet – for a simple wash and scrub, it was going to cost, for the two of us, $175 Canadian dollars.

Strike Two

Oh God, this is not looking good. We better choose something that’s going to work. Ah, the Perla Palace Hotel was in the area. Up, up and up the hill, around a few corners, down an alleyway, across a major intersection, and yes, there it was in all its splendor. The Perla Palace Hotel was made famous by Agatha Christie, where she committed many a foul murder in her writing career. Apparently, she used to stay here to conjure up some of her murder mysteries.

She must have taken advantage of the adjoining pastries, which we seemed to get ensnared by.

Home Run

To feel we earned those pastries, we we needed to walk a little further, so off we set to uncover mysteries of the area before returning to the hotel for a well-earned rest.