Moda

Waterfront · KadıköyIstanbul,Türkiye

A grassy cape on Istanbul's Asian shore where the city gathers to watch the sun set behind the old peninsula, backed by tea gardens.

Moda is a grassy cape on the Asian shore where Istanbul comes to sit and look at the water. A wide slope of grass runs down to the rocks, and on any clear evening it fills with people who have come for one thing: the sun setting behind the skyline of the old city across the water. The Princes' Islands sit on the far horizon and catch the last light. Behind the grass, narrow streets hold secondhand bookshops and tea gardens. On the tip stands a small late-Ottoman ferry hall of 1917, built out over the sea and now serving tea instead of tickets. A single-carriage heritage tram rattles a slow loop through the quarter. The name is often traced to the Italian and French word for fashion, after the Levantine and well-to-do families who made this leafy promontory their summer quarter in the nineteenth century. People stay on the grass for hours after the light has gone, and on a summer weekend there is barely room to sit.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Sit on the grass, not on the paved edge — the whole slope tilts down toward the water where the sun sets, so you get the view without turning your head.
Weekday mornings are the locals' Moda — the tea gardens sit half-empty and you'll hear tram bells and gulls instead of a crowd.
Trust the silent queue — the ice-cream counter with the longest, quietest line is the old-school one; mastic and salep flavours are what give a real maker away.
Come back when the lodos blows — a hard southerly wind throws spray over the rocks and empties the shore to a handful of storm-watchers.

Things to do

1
Take the slope for sunset
Walk down onto the grass on the tip of the cape about an hour before sunset, pick a spot facing open water, and stay put. Watch the sun drop behind the minaret line of the old city across the water while the sea shifts from silver to copper to grey.
2
Walk an ice cream along the shore
Order a scoop at the old counter locals queue for, then follow the shoreline path with it, past anglers and tea gardens, letting the cone set your pace instead of a map. Finish on the rocks, where the Princes' Islands hang on the far horizon.
3
Take tea in the old ferry hall
Walk out to the small building standing over the water at the tip of the cape, and take a table at a window. Order çay by the glass and watch container ships crawl across the Marmara. The sea moves directly beneath the floor, and the light off it comes up through the coloured glass.