Dinner and Dancing

Last night a couple people from the office here took us to dinner at the Galata Tower located in Taksim. When we arrived in Taksim we walked around for a bit. We first went to the Cicek Pasaji just to see it. The Cicek Pasaji is a famous passage in Istanbul. There is not a lot too it but it's pretty inside.As you exit the Cicek Pasaji you end up in the fish market. There are lots of restaurants along this street and they try to lure you in by showing you all they fish they have by putting it on display.
Next we went to the French Street in Istanbul for some drinks. All the houses have been restored and are now available for an open air road festival. 29 Houses, 43 shops in between two small roads, all are now hosting new cafes, Brasseries, Patisseries, wine houses and restaurants. And they all are in French style. We went to the Artiste Terrace for a good view from the top. My favorite part was that it was really dim in the restaurant so they attached an LED light to all our menus! Here is some history on the tower. I should probably put that all these history facts (and some of the pictures) I've been putting in my blog are from Wikipedia. The Galata Tower is one of the city's most striking landmarks, it is a huge, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline on the Galata side of the Golden Horn. The tower was built as Christea Turris in 1348. It was the apex of the fortifications surrounding the Genoese citadel of Galata.

The nine-story tower is 66.90 meters tall (62.59 m without the ornament on top, 51.65 m at the observation deck), and was the city's tallest structure when built. The elevation at ground level is 35 meters above sea-level. The tower has a diameter of 16.45 meter at the base, with 8.95 meters diameter inside, and with walls 3.75 meters thick. Last night we went out on the observation deck and took some pictures. It was a little foggy out so they didn't turn out as good as hoped but maybe we'll get back over there this weekend to take some better ones.
There is a restaurant located at the top of the tower. It's a set menu (which is actually pretty delicious) and then there is also a show during dinner complete with Turkish folk dancing and belly-dancing! I've included some pictures. I tried to upload a video of the dancing but it didn't work so I'll have to try to put it on Facebook later.
Side story: A few weeks before I left for this trip, I had to go get a special card for work that allows me to go to our manufacturing sites located near the water without an escort. I won't go into much detail on that. You have to get your picture taken for the card that they give. Now, I'm not really one to be shy around a camera except that they guy told me that I couldn't smile. Something about the camera not being able to process the white of people's teeth. Hmmmm...it was the middle of January and my skin is almost as translucent from the lack of weekends on the boat and yet somehow my teeth are too white? Below is a picture which I'm sure its going to be pretty close to what the one on my card looks like. That's a keeper.