2025-2026 Central Asia Adventure – Istanbul Turkey
Today’s Huntington’s Disease information minute is holy-spectacular-wow-amazing! It was just announced that an investigational DNA repair treatment reduces the progression of HD by 75% and the news is spreading like wildfire in the HD community and into the mainstream press. You can read the BBC article but to summarize – an engineered section of DNA is injected deep into two specific parts of the brain that are most affected by the progression of HD. The DNA does some magic and the body fights the mutant protein that causes the neurons to die off over the years. The net effect is HD progression is massively slowed down, leading to more good years for HD people. The exact position of the bad part of Chromosome 4 that leads to HD was identified in 1993 and besides one drug that helps control the jerky movements, there have been no major HD breakthroughs until today. I still hold out hope for stem cells and CRISPR-CAS9 to contribute to the full and final cure but we need to relish this accomplishment!
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cevz13xkxpro
Hello from Istanbul, the fourth stop on the trip but not a new city or country as I’ve already been here in 2016 and 2023.
2016: https://www.facebook.com/mwbrown42/posts/pfbid0hFMBKjFspY7y86ZW3g6UQVPAsnDJBkmRtfQcTbTsTYaiMHY9G4K8fr3tsx4Pr7tUl
2023: https://www.facebook.com/mwbrown42/posts/pfbid02LyvGjC9QM5NJ6QjDKpJXhpTc8oydetqw4TC8L9rhFoYbkJUqPbrd1RL8qzdgJQ5yl
History Lesson:
Turkey is unique in that it straddles the continental border between Europe and Asia, and being at a key crossroads of civilization it has a long and tortuous history. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers were the earliest inhabitants which gave way through millennia to the Greeks. The famous Trojan War may not be real, but is thought to have been fought in the 12th or 11th century BC. The Persians rolled in around 500 BC, as shown in the totally factual movie “300”, abs and all. Alexander The Great took over in 334 BC, then the Romans solidified their hold around year 0. Christianity spread through the region and the capital Byzantium was renamed New Rome then Constantinople after Roman Emperor Constantine. The Byzantine Empire was the successor of the Roman Empire in the eastern region and became one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe. In the 11th century Turks and Islam started penetrating the region, followed by the hugely powerful Ottoman Empire. After the Ottoman collapse at the end of World War I, the modern Republic of Turkey was declared, importantly under a secular constitution. This was controversial in a region with strong religious influences on government. Mustafa Kemal is considered the father of modern Turkey and was bestowed the surname Ataturk, which means Father Turk, and his image is everywhere you look in Turkey. Interestingly I saw his birthplace back in Greece so I wonder how he came to be so influential here. There have been military coups in 1960, 1980 and an unsuccessful one in 2016. Kurdish land rights and civil rights are actively in dispute. Turkey is in NATO but its accession into the European Union has been blocked citing violations of human rights and evidence of sliding away from secularism. Current President Recep ErdoÄan had been stripped of his position as Mayor of Istanbul and imprisoned for inciting religious hatred, and has been accused of authoritarianism, democratic backsliding and suppression of dissents and allowing corruption, censorship and purges of his opposition. His economic policies have led to high inflation rates and the depreciation of the value of the Turkish Lira by more than 14x in 9 years.
Below is the standard summary:
– Cool Ranch Doritos: No, but they have a disgusting Aromatic Ketchup flavor and Hot Corn which is meh
– Spain & Wise Debit Cards Work: Yes
– Airalo Worldwide Telephone/Data/SMS eSIM Works: Yes
– VPN Works: Flaky
– Cost of Living: $$
– Currency: $1 USD = 41.57 Turkish Lira. When I was here in 2016 it was 3 Lira to $1, in 2023 it was 18 to $1. Economic collapse much?
– Language Issues: Very few. Staff in the hotel, restaurants and shops generally speak English fluently
Luckily for me, there is a direct train connection from Sofia to Istanbul as I don’t want to start this trip with a 9 hour bus ride. Vani’s place is a wonderful 10 minute walk to the train station. I saw that my train was going out on track 5, I got there and found a very shabby train going to Plovdiv so I waited for it to leave and my shiny fast train to show up. 15 minutes to go and it’s still there. I asked a guy in uniform and he said my car is at the front of the train – the first 3 cars are the sleepers to Istanbul! I found my cabin – fantastic. These cars are owned by the Turkish railroad, with aircon, power plugs, two chairs that turn into fold-down beds, sink & water and a fridge. We rolled out of the station right on time, absolutely smooth and quiet ride. Luckily for me, I had the cabin to myself since nobody bought the other ticket. This is where the happiness ends…
At 1 AM we stopped in Svilengrad and the Bulgarian border police collected a stack of passports. As expected they don’t like the picture of mye Spanish residency card in my phone, and no English to plead my case. Uh oh… They’re taking a VERY long time, I hope I’m not their excitement for the night. 40 minutes later they came back on the train, handed me my passport, smiled a bit and walked on. Holy f**k did I get lucky! I wonder if they found a note in my record from the Sofia airport immigration agent that I’m approved with the picture. We’re rolling again after 1 hour at the station. I awake to bang on the door at 3:45AM, the train is stopped. People are fully dressed and going into the aisle with suitcases and backpacks. I pack all my stuff up and get into a line in a half-completed train station with about 150 other people. And wait. Finally one of the passengers near the front says “The news is there is no news, and we all need to move back 10 meters.” At 4:15 a police car drives up with lights flashing. Two cops walk past us. 4:30 the line starts moving. The two cops ARE the passport agents. They’re sitting in a small aluminum shed, with a sliding tray in front of each window that we put our passports into. After that we turn around, walk past a duty-free shack (open at 4am), and put our bags through an x-ray machine. And then a long walk back parallel to the train, then onto the platform and into my cabin, unpack. 5am and the last of us is getting stamped in. We arrived at Istanbul Halkali station right on time, only 3.5 hours late… Bought an Instanbulkart card and topped up 500 lira for fares for the next few days, got on the Marmaray MR1 metro to Yenikapı Station, changed to M2, got off at Taksim Square. Rolled downhill for 10 minutes to the hotel. Toto, we’re home! I was offered a balcony room on the 3rd floor or a terrace room on the 6th floor. No elevator in this hotel so I happily took the 3rd floor room.
Since I’ve been here twice before, this is more of a launching point going east through central Asia and I wasn’t planning on doing much sightseeing. I started out on a walk around the neighborhood, up and down the famous pedestrian walkway from Taksim Square to the Bosporus, dodging the Instagrammers taking selfies with the preserved tram as necessary. Went into a pharmacy and had two very helpful staff give me antibiotic eye drops and an ointment to put under the eyelid just before sleep. Stick that in your salad, Bulgaria! Had meat patties on a bed of pureed eggplant, rice, peppers and tomato for dinner – delish! I sat in an area all by myself but it quickly filled up with smokers. I wanted to try a restaurant called Yuri Gagarin to celebrate the first human in space, but it was full. Back in the hotel I tried running my VPN, problems giving list of available countries and acting very flaky. I suspect some Internet hanky panky by the powers that be.
My big plan for the next day was to go to AÄa Hamamı, the oldest hamam in the city, built as a hunting lodge in 1454 for Fatih Sultan Mehmet. It’s still heated by wood from underneath. The prices are traditional 2800 or with a massage upgrade for 4800. Yikes! It’s rated top in the city so I guess I should try it, but I’ll skip the 20 minute massage that costs $50! Also there’s a $13 surcharge for credit cards so I paid cash. I checked in and changed into my bathers. I was shown into a coed white marble steam room and was told to relax here, we’ll come back in 30 minutes. Um… The stone was initially super hot on the skin but you get used to it. Stone sinks with taps and brass bowls let you pour water on yourself. I was then directed into a small room and a guy proceeded to scrub me with a loofa mitt, front and back. I never had this much ball-jostling even after 12 years in Thailand. Then he covered me in bubbles and scrubbed again, more jostling. Then he rinsed me off with bowls of water and I got a mouthful of soapy water, which led to much coughing and spitting. I kept my mouth tightly shut after that. Then he shampooed my hair and face, more rinsing with ice cold water. He wrapped me in towels and directed me out to the lobby. The entire scrubbing time was only about 20-30 minutes. I was then directed upstairs to lie on a padded couch and relax with some tea and a candy. After a while nobody came for me so I decided to get changed and leave. I now notice that there’s no time duration listed on the site… For 58 Euros, I was expecting more, and not 2/3 of it lying alone with my thoughts. Check out the pictures https://www.agahamami.com/
I booked a dinner cruise so I walked along the shoreline and saw two massive cruise ships docked. I found my ship, called Mega Lüfer Yachts 1. I shared a table with a Mexican woman and a German guy, a network engineer so we had a lot to talk about. Our waiter Emir confirmed no onions in the appetizer or main of meatballs and chicken kebab! One of the waiters looks like Wollowitz on Big Bang Theory, check out the picture I surreptitiously took. I was nearly finished my dinner when I remembered I had paid for the optional 2 glasses of wine, and asked Emir for both because he disappears for a long time, but he said only one at a time. Out on the back deck it was cool and breezy, everything on the shore beautifully lit up. There were multiple music and dancing shows through the evening. I asked Emir for my second glass of wine and he brought me two more so I tipped him 400. Walked home, nearly vertical the whole way back up the hill.
The next day I had a very special adventure but I’ll make a separate post about that, coming up next.
My last day was spent trying to walk and eat while avoiding the smokers. I swear EVERYONE in this country smokes, and smokes everywhere. I’ve worked out that Turkey doesn’t have water vapour clouds, it’s just a layer of cigarette smoke that hangs low over the whole country. I had to give up on Yuri Gagarin due to the smokers, but found an Italian restaurant with a no-smoking section inside, but then quickly realized that smoke blows in from outside as the waiters walk in and out. I can’t get away from these people!
Next stop: The train to Ankara.
