Istiklal Avenu - the main street of Istanbul

The most famous street in the Europian part of Istanbul, and in whole Istanbul in general is Istiklal Avenue. I visited this street many times, and I never saw it was empty. After 5 p.m. here is so crowded, that you can not move fast.

This street is full of tourists, who walk with big and small cameras. In one day I also decided to take a camera and to fix the most attractive places there:

·   Cicek Pasaji. Design of this building was created by italian architect. Just one look is enough to understand this: white walls, high cellings, columns, refinement of the main facade. This construction functiones from 1876 and had rich history. In begining there were some shops and appartaments. From 1920 Cicek Pasaji was a center of russian women-sellers. They solt here flowers.

 In nowadays people come here for dinner: there are many restaurants, wich serve traditional Turkish deeshes and drinks. We visited this place many times: in my opinion grilled fish here was the best! Also in Cicek Pasaji possible to listen live music, which is on the national instruments. Turkish visitors like it, and often they invite musicians to play near their table (for special fee). However, for me such kind of music was boring.

·       St. Antony of Padya Church. This catholic church was built in 1912 in Venetian Neo-Gotic style. Tall facades, angular roof, attractive arches and colorful design from outside of the building make a great effect. But it's just a beginning: from inside this church really something marvelous! Unfortunately (like in any acting church) to take photos inside the building was forbidden. We tried to take secretly some pictures, but quality of those photos was not good. Inside the church I saw fired candles, but I couldn't find any place, where possible was to take or to buy such candles.

In 2014 the Pope visited Istanbul and this Church. We learned details of his visit from the stands, which were located beside the building

As I learned from statement on the wall, pastors are read Messes on English and Turkish languages on each week-end. Since it was daily day we were not lucky to attend a Mess, so after inspect icons and decorations we left the construction and went to check a small garden, where we found statue of Virgin Mary.

I walked on Istiklal Avenue many times. But I saw St. Antony of Padya Church first time! This construction is a hidden with trees, but tourists should visit it.

·      Tunnel (Tunel). Not so far from mentioned church there is one of the oldest underground railway line in the world. It is started to work in 1875 and connects two stations: Karaköy and Beyoğlu. For the transportation is uses modern carriage, which seemed very clean inside. The road from one station to another takes just 1,5 minutes. This kind of transport (as I understood from quantity of passengers) is very popular. We also decided to ride: one ticket cost 3 Turkish liras.

·       Clothing stores. I cannot tell that Istiklal Avenue is the best place in Istanbul for shopping, but we found there attractive souvenir T-shirts, and pullovers for our friends and relatives. I visited stores where were sold clothes of such famous Turkish brands like LC Waikiki, Mavi, Cotton, but they were totally full. How could I concentrate and get pleasure from the shopping?!) Also in this street are many handmade stores, stores with traditional Turkish dishes, sweets, dried fruits, and other interesting things.

One evening in Istanbul we decided to dedicate for research some night clubs, which are in Istiklal street. We visited two of them: Lupo and Salsanat night clubs. They were like twins; similar with each other: free entrance, small tables, tiny dance floors, absence of chairs, bad conditioning system... There was forbidden to smoke inside, but even my underwear was not saved from terrible smell! I didn't understand why they called these places as a night clubs: people come in night club to dance, but there really was impossible to do this because of huge-huge crowd! I felt myself like a soldier on the duty: I couldn't move because everywhere people pushed. Music and special effects also were not good. In Salsanat I ordered my favorite song. DJ took 50 USD per one song, but he forgot to play this song, and nobody turned a money! After I left those places I was in such deep shock, that even I forgot to ask my girl friends how much we paid for that "happiness" (usually I learn such information for article).

Istiklal Avenue gave me too much good and not so good emotions. For the future, I decided for myself that I will never visit any night club on this region.