Week 11: R & R in Istanbul: part 2: not always just about sightseeing
Then too, it's a time to take care of housekeeping type tasks. Patrick lost a tiny screw on his glasses, so one morning was about getting his glasses repaired. After going to shop after shop showing the glasses and asking for repair, we learned to ask the right question. We asked where to go to get glasses and we were directed to an optik shop that had a repair kit.
Another task was finding bearings for a Phil Wood hub. The Patrick's wheel developed a click (probably due to a bad bearing in the cartridge) We switched it to Rachel's bike since she has a lighter load, but want to get it fixed. We have the replacement part but wanted more bearings. This was another morning adventure. We found the area of bike shops and advice where to buy the bearings at an auto shop, but unsuccessful in communicating how to replace; that will be another day unless absolutely needs replacing which Patrick could do.
Then back to sightseeing. We took a 3 hour tour of the Bosphorus only that it was actually a 6 hour tour. The 3 hour part was on the boat going out to a point where the Bosphorus meets the Black Sea and back to Istanbul, with a few hours on shore.
Narrow crowded streets of Sultanahmet. After the "dead" cities of eastern Europe the hustle and bustle is refreshing.
Removing the freewheel seems to be the biggest obstacle to replace the bearings. "I explain I have the freewheel remover tool; all we need is a vice and some leverage." without success. In the end we decide not to worry about it, the wheel still runs fine, one of these days there will be a garage next to our hotel and we'll take care of it then.
We take a boatride down the Bosporus to the Black Sea. We hadn't counted on the 2 1/2 hour lunchbreak at the far point so it turns into an all-day event.
