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Published: September 29th 2007
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The title of my blog might sound boring - "another" evening on the Bosphorus. But I must admit, I'm not tiring of this beautiful strait yet. We learned today that it has competing currents, with the top of the strait running North to South, and the bottom running South to North. Yet, even though this makes the Bosphorus always active, it's very peaceful to look out over it in the evening. At the end of the night, I went out onto my little balcony and curled up in a chair to read, and it was pretty amazing to think that here I am, in Istanbul's best hotel and I'm reading a book while overlooking the Bosphorus. In the background, I could see the changing lights of the Bosphorus bridge, and still see the headlights glowing in the distance, and yet even with all of that activity, and the boats passing by in the night, it was still so calm.
But let me backtrack a little. After I raced around to get ready for dinner, we managed to leave almost on time for Mavi Balik, the evening's destination and yet another fish restaurant. Since we alerted our hosts to my dislike
of fish, he had requested that I get a chicken dish, which was SO nice since I normally just skip the main course when that happens. It was only a short ride (really!) to Mavi Balik, and when we arrived, we were escorted inside and up a strange staircase. I say that it's strange only because the steps were very short so they were difficult to navigate in heels, and the bannister was awfully low. But we made our way upstairs and admired the paintings for sale on the wall - I was particularly struck with how many of them seemed to be portraits of people with extremely piercing eyes.
As we came to the top of the steps and entered the dining room, the view was the first thing we saw - an entire wall of glass had been opened to reveal almost a panoramic view of the Bosphorus, the two bridges, multiple mosques, and even the local military academy. It was breathtaking. Since it was almost a warm night, many of us decided to sit outside and enjoy the view. We joked that no boats would be able to dock there, since the restaurant is situated quite high up, with another restaurant far below. It was really wonderful to see the darkened ships slipping by in the strait and little fishing boats chugging along trying to avoid their wake. And on Friday night, Istanbul appears to be hopping - behind us seemed to be a club with wildly flashing lights and old music turned into techno (think Barry White goes techno). There were even searchlights far in the distance scanning the horizon. It really made you feel as if you were in the very center of things, and we agreed that the Bosphorus never got boring.
Dinner was also delicious. We started with a number of appetizers, again served in a family-type style as in the first fish restaurant we went to. I avoided most of the fish, but did have some calamari. I did have the hummus and some cheese, spreading each on pieces of bread to serve as my appetizers. My main course was a grilled chicken, which was extremely tender, and some rice which was also delicious. Dessert was a selection of fruit and little sweets, including a piece of baklava, which was what I had (as well as the pears, of course!).
The company was delightful as well, and we had fun quizzing our host on his local knowledge, and generally enjoying each other's conversation. We ended the evening with a cup of Turkish coffee "medium" - which means that it's brewed with some sugar. One of the delegates joked that this is the "touristic" way, but our waiter assured us that to drink it with no sugar was too strong, and "sweet" would be too much either, so "medium" is perfect. I feel like a true coffee drinker whenever I have it, although it did give me an added boost, so that I didn't go to bed as soon as I should have - perhaps tomorrow, during the free afternoon, I will take a nap. I know I should try the Grand Bazaar and see the Blue Mosque (for the good of my readers), but honestly, I am tired and think I will just enjoy what the hotel has to offer, like the pool which I have yet to try!
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