It only took us three
years to do something nearly every first-time tourist does in Istanbul.
Before we moved from
Istanbul last year, we made a bucket list of things we still wanted to do in
the city. One of those items was riding the historic tram that trundles down
the pedestrian-only Istiklal Caddesi in Taksim.
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| You cannot miss the historic Tünel Tram in the Taksim neighborhood in Istanbul. |
I always pooh-pawed the
idea of taking this tram. For one, it’s always crowded; and two, it was
something ONLY tourists did. I was never a true tourist in Istanbul. I moved to
this historical, cosmopolitan city in 2010 as a first-time resident, newly
married, and without ever seeing it in person.
Of course, I ended up
doing many touristy things over and over, especially when friends came to visit
us. However, riding this tram was never one of those things. Not riding this
tram while living in Istanbul perhaps is comparable to never setting foot in
Times Square if you had lived in NYC like we once
did.
The historic red and white
Tünel Tram runs down Istiklal Caddesi (once called the Grand Rue de Pera) from
Taksim Square to Tünel Square – a distance of 1.64 km (1 mile). The tram was first
introduced in 1875, taken out of service in 1961 to be replaced by buses, and was
revived again in 1990. Today, the trams carry an average of 6,000
passengers daily!
If you do decide to take
the tram, I can’t promise you will arrive at your destination any quicker than
if you just walked the 15 or 20 minutes. The ride is relatively slow as the
conductor must constantly ring the bell to make the pedestrians move out of the
tram’s way. However, the ride offers tourists and residents alike a quick view
of life on Istiklal Cadessi, and maybe you will shave a few minutes off your
commute.
For
us, riding the historic Tünel Tram was
just another item crossed off our Istanbul bucket list!
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If you’d like read more
about Istanbul during the late 1900s as the Ottoman Empire was waning, I can
highly recommend a historical fiction book called, The Sultan’s
Seal by Jenny White. Her book
follows the main character, Kamil Pasa, a magristrate over the Pera and Galata
neighborhood, as he tries to solve a murder mystery. The book goes into great
detail about the old neighborhoods of Taksim, Galata and Pera. It’s a fantastic
read!
“A horse-drawn tram clangs
along the (Grand Rue de Pera), carrying matrons from the new northern suburbs
into town for shopping…Kamil surveys the early morning bustle of Istanbul’s
most modern quarter. Apprentices balance nested copper tins of hot food and
trays of steaming tea, hurrying toward customers waiting in shops and hotels…,”
excerpt taken from The Sultan’s Seal.
