A Last Stroll - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 469

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A Last Stroll
Our tours have now taken us through nearly every part of the city
and to most of its historical monuments. But, as we have perhaps
learned on our strolls, Istanbul is much more than just an inhabited
museum, for the old town has a beauty and fascination that go quite
beyond its history and its architecture. One is apt to feel this when
seated at a çayevi or meyhane in a sun-dappled square, or while taking
one's ease in a vine-shaded café beside the Bosphorus. Little has been
said of the Stamboullus themselves, but the visitor will surely have
experienced innumerable examples of their grave friendliness and
unfailing hospitality. Much of the pleasure of visiting or living in this
city derives from the warm and relaxed company of its residents. “Hoş
geldiniz!” (Welcome), they say to the stranger who arrives in their city
or their home; and when one leaves one is sent of with a “Güle Güle!”
(Go with Smiles), as if to lessen the inevitable sadness of departure.
But how can one not feel sad when leaving this beautiful city.
But before we leave let us take one last stroll through Stamboul,
to visit an enchanting place which we have somehow missed on
our earlier tours. This is the venerable district of Kum Kapı, which
lies at the foot of the Second and Third Hills along the Marmara
shore. here are no monuments here of any historic or architectural
importance, just a wonderful old Stamboul neighbourhood. The
harbour of Kum Kapı, the ancient Kontoscalion, is the last of the
Byzantine ports still left on the Marmara coast of the city. It is always
filled with picturesque caiques and the quayside is often carpeted with
brilliantly-dyed fishing nets spread there to be dried and mended.
The fish market there is one of the liveliest and most colourful in the
city; the shouts and cries of the fishmongers are liable to be in any of
several languages: Turkish, Greek, Armenian and even Laz, raucous
and ribald in all four.