The Stapleton's in London: Istanbul

Our last two days in Istanbul were a little less intense, so we figured they could be condensed into one post.

Sunday, November 22nd

Sunday we woke up early and headed off for a cruise up the Bosphorus Straight. This little body of water - the size of wide river - splits the city in two and is the dividing line between Europe and Asia. There are commuter boats that run up, down, and between the banks of the straight ferrying people to and from work every day. One of these goes north up the straight taking you past several interesting sites and eventually stopping at a small fishing village far outside the city on the Asian side (conveniently right in time for lunch).

The boat left from the main part of the city, giving some great views of the mosques from the water. It then turned north where we passed the new Royal Palace (built by the Sultan in the 1800s to replace the Topkapi, as it wasn't European enough), an old castle fortress, the homes of the wealthiest inhabitants (whose homes are right on the water, complete with boat garages).

We arrived in the village of Anadolu Kavagi just after noon, and with a couple of hours until the return boat to Istanbul, we figured we had some time to spare before finding a place to eat, so we decided to wander the town a bit. Sadly, it turns out that the city pretty much survives on tourists like us taking the boat up and stopping for lunch, so there wasn't really anything to do in the town aside from eat. After dodging a few restaurateurs telling us about how their place was the best, we settled on one with a good seaside table with the sun shining down on us and a decent menu and had a seat. There was a little bit of a translation issue, but we both ended up with pretty good meals - although my fish still having eyes was a little bit off-putting.

We finished up our lunch and got back on the boat at 3:00. We ended up being pretty glad that we'd come in November, because we got back to the city right around sunset, which resulted in some pretty awesome pictures. I think they really helped to capture some of the mystery and differences that we felt in being there.

We stopped back by the spice market to pick up some more Turkish Delight (future gifts to the families at Thanksgiving - although they were very under-appreciated), and we also ended up with a cool ceramic bowl (no pictures, as it is wrapped up tight and will stay that way until we get back to Dallas).

Before heading back to the hotel, we returned to have dinner at the Turkish place from night #1, and once again enjoyed some delicious kebabs, bread, baklava, and apple tea.

Monday, November 23rd

Monday was pretty uneventful. Our flight was in the mid afternoon, but with the time it takes to transfer to the airport (it's in another continent!!!), we had to head off from the city by 11:00.

We did have time to make a second stop at the Blue Mosque - which ended up providing a very different perspective!! A cruise ship had apparently docked that morning, and I'm fairly certain that every single passenger made their way to the Mosque right as we arrived. We counted no less than 11 separate tour groups from the ship inside with us. It was still nice to see the inside in the daylight - it really lit the place up - but we were glad that we'd seen it more sparsely populated a few nights earlier, as it was a completely different ambiance. I guess following those suggestions about when to avoid the masses is pretty important!