Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

I decided that I wasn't actually up for spending 6+ hours of today traveling for a day trip to Edirne. It was snowing pretty steadily for most of the day, big wet flakes that mostly melted as soon as they landed. I wandered around Beyoğlu a bit, mostly in search of food, and tried to spend most of my time indoors.

One of my errands today was to find a post office. Turned out to be trickier than I'd anticipated. The one the guidebook mentions on Istiklal Cadessi appears to have closed. There are remnants of some post office signs, but they're mostly covered or removed. The next nearest post office was supposed to be in Karaköy, but it turned out to be tricky to find.

It's hard to tell which streets will appear in the guidebook's maps. They definitely don't include every little alley, and often don't label midsized streets. And the street name signs aren't always easy to locate, so even if you're on the right street, you might not know it. After eliminating the more promising-looking candidates, I turned down a small street near the fish market and found the post office across from a store selling chainsaws.

There's been a visible police presence in this part of town all day. On my way to lunch, a man grabbed me by the shoulder. It turned out he was a policeman, and had probably been asking me where I was going, or telling me to stop, but I had no idea. He patted me down for weapons and let me go on my way.

This evening, on my way to dinner, I passed a large group of police in full riot gear, with gas masks ready. They were moving at walking speed down the major street. A little way further, I came across a protest march. Lots of chanting slogans, a few signs, and some tiki torches. They seemed to be centered around the Galatsaray Lycée. I don't know what it was about, but apparently it stayed calm. I saw the crowd disperse near Tünel, and the police vans drove down towards Galata Tower.