Istanbul – Part II

Today I took a boat cruise up the Bosphorus Straight to the entrance of the Black Sea and back. The weather was beautiful and made for a very nice trip, which lasted around six hours in total – a two hour ride up the straight, a two hour stop in Anadolu Kavagi, and then a two hour ride back. Here’s a shot of the Galata neighborhood just as we were beginning the journey.

The boat was very crowded but large enough so that you weren’t completely overwhelmed by the number of people. And if you didn’t care about having a seat, there was even more room available since there were a lot of open spaces along the rails. This worked out well for me as I didn’t need a seat and preferred a nice view in order to take pictures.

On the first leg of the cruise, I stood on the port side of the boat and thus had views of the European side of the straight. There were a number of interesting sights including the Rumeli Hisari (a 15th century Ottoman castle), the Dolmabahçe Palace (a 19th century Ottoman palace) and the Ortaköy Mosque.



















During the stop in Anadolu Kavagi, I spent the majority of my time at the Yaros Castle. It is about a 15 minute hike up the hill and offers beautiful views down the Bosphorus towards central Istanbul and in the opposite direction toward the Black Sea. The castle dates back to the Byzantine period and has been a strategic fortification throughout its history. The castle ruins are in fairly good shape, though the fact that site is not supervised results in a lot of tourist scaling the walls and thus ongoing deterioration.











I had been told that ancient Greek inscriptions remain on some of the castle walls, but I wasn’t able to find any. At least I’m pretty sure that this wasn’t one of them…

Here’s a shot of me with the entrance to the Black Sea in the background. And, no, I haven’t gained forty pounds around my waist. It was the wind…

Anadolu Kavagi itself is a small fishing village. The main area down by the small harbor is lined with fish restaurants that cater to the many day visitors who take the Bosphorus boat cruise from Istanbul and prefer to spend their two hour stopover having a relaxing lunch rather than hiking up to the Yaros castle. Here’s a shot of the calmer section along the water that is away from the heart of the tourist activity.

During the return leg of the cruise, I stayed on the port side of the boat in order to have views of the Asian side of the straight. There were a number of interesting sights including the Anadolu Hisari (a 14th century castle across from the Rumeli Hisari), the Beylerbeyi Palace (19th century Ottoman palace) and the Selimiye Barracks (where Florence Nightingale cared for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War). My favorite pictures, though, were simply of houses and the general scenery along the waterfront.



















After the cruise I took the metro across the bridge to Galata and then walked to Taksim Square to see the independence monument. From there, I walked along Istiklal Cadessi, which is a pedestrian street where all of Istanbul seemed to have congregated on Friday afternoon for a stroll in the nice weather.










By chance I noticed the San Antonio di Padova Catholic Church, which is the largest church in Turkey and offers services in Turkish, Italian and English. I also went to the Galata Tower, but did not go to the top because the line was incredibly long.















Here’s a shot of some street performers that were fun to listen to.

I then walked across the Galata Bridge back to Sultanahmet. There were tons of fishermen on the bridge and I’m not sure how much they were actually catching. Regardless, it seemed like a social atmosphere with all of the fishermen having a good time. And they definitely had a very nice view.



















For dinner I stopped at another hotel-recommended restaurant, which was also a local establishment. There was seating on the roof and I arrived in time to see the sunset over the Sea of Marmara. I also arrived just in time for a call to prayer, which complemented the warm sunset and cool breeze well.


I decided to order kebab again and it was very good. So was the bread, which was roughly the size of a football and consisted primarily of hot air. Everything tasted great. Here’s a picture of the bread.

After dinner I headed back to the hotel as it was late and Emilie was arriving soon to join me in Istanbul for the weekend.