Asian Shore
When the ancient Greek Byzas asked an oracle where he should found his city, the oracle reputedly said ‘opposite the blind’, referring to the Chalcedonians who settled on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in the 7th century BC, ignoring the obvious advantages of the European shore. Perhaps they just wanted a quieter life. A 20-minute boat-trip from the teeming attractions of the European to the Asian shore indeed offers visitors a taste of Turkish life at a calmer pace, as well as the chance to boast that they have crossed between continents to find it.
It is only in the last two decades that the collection of villages on the Asian side of the Bosphorus have found themselves caught up in the mushroom-like growth of the city and recast as suburbs. The two main areas are Üsküdar to the north, which faces Beyoglu across the water, and, south, Kadiköy, opposite the Old City. Primarily residential, the districts don’t attract too many tourists. That doesn’t stop locals flocking to the local bazaar in Kadiköy, by the Mustafa Iskele Mosque, or to what is one of the city’s best street markets on nearby Kusdili Sokak (Tuesday – food and clothes, Sunday – flea-market). Also close is Çiya, a wonderfully unpretentious restaurant given the quality of its Anatolian cooking and in itself a destination worth the ferry trip.
Wandering up the shore to Üsküdar takes you past the Kız Kulesi – Maiden’s Tower – an immensely popular landmark despite its lack or historical or architectural significance. Located just offshore on its own rocky outcrop and accessible by boat it is nonetheless a good place for a coffee and a pleasant spot from which to look at the Bosphorus. Round the bend is the beautiful S¸emsi Pasa Mosque, one of the smallest, by star Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan.
You may wish to travel further afield as, after the intensity of the European parts of Istanbul, a trip to the Asian shore often awakes impulses to escape and explore. One route northwards takes in the Asian Bosphorus villages, of which Kanlıca is one of the most charming, famous since the 17th century for its thick yoghurts and home to one the city’s finest fish restaurants, Körfez.
In the other direction, the Kızıl Adalar – the Princes’ Islands – lie off the south coast of Kadiköy. A collection of tranquil islands where superfluous Byzantine princes were once exiled (the more efficient Ottomans tended simply to strangle theirs), they have long attracted ethnically diverse settlers, bourgeois pleasure seekers from the city and assorted exiles, including, for a while, Leon Trotsky. But those with more extreme wanderlust need only venture into the idiosyncratically Teutonic form of Haydarpasa station in Kadiköy, a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm, where they can catch trains for as far east as Tehran.
