Advertisement
Woolly says – I learnt something new today! There are TWO 4 o’clocks, although why I had to be woken from my slumbers to discover the other one is beyond me. To add insult to injury I was shovelled onto a coach with only a mars bar to keep my strength up before suffering the indignity of looking for a hoover at the domestic terminal, they might have told me I had the wrong end of the stick!
It was funny watching the Mammoth searching high and low for the domestic appliances at the airport and even though his sense of humour had been left on the ground he cheered up considerably when the nice cabin crew handed him a toasted cheese sandwich and I’m sure the other passengers didn’t really mind sharing there’s with him. Woolly says – with the hunger pangs subsiding I watched our very slow descent into Istanbul, even craning my neck over the back of the seat didn’t result in any views of bulls, where on earth have they brought me? What kind of a place is Istanbul without any bulls to terrorize? Misrepresentation I think!
With his furry mind wandering through the eventualities of being bull-less, we collected our suitcase before being rapidly transported through the frenzy of the
largest city in Turkey. Located on the Bosporus Strait and covering the entire area of the Golden Horn - a natural harbour, it is the only city in the world to extend into both Europe and Asia gives the 13 million population two different regions to inhabit. Woolly says – now that’s a first, two continents for the price one! I rapidly pawed through the guidebook to find out a little more. Originally inhabited by the Greeks in in 7
th century BC it became part of Rome in the 300’s. During this time, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (not my mate Hadrian who missed a good opportunity here) undertook a construction project to rebuild the entire city. His goal was to make it stand out and give the city monuments similar to those found in Rome. In 330, Constantine declared the city as the capital of the entire Roman Empire and renamed it Constantinople. Following lots of fighting and invasions it was finally conquered by the Ottomans in 1453 after
a 53 day siege. They immediately changed its name and started building many of the architectural wonders that still stand today. Ok that’s enough of history let’s see what snacks are on offer!
Having checked into our hotel we had enough time to sup a cay in the old quarter of the city while the Mammoth made fast work of several simit’s (a round bread which does seem to fill him up for a while at least) before our coach arrived to collect us. Woolly says - This is all very unusual compared to our previous travel methods but being the realistic super star that I am I really couldn’t see Jo driving through the mayhem and tiny streets so we went for the much easier option of letting someone else take the strain. Our guide proved to be well informed and with our driver more than capable of getting a coach through the eye of a needle we made our way onto the cruise ship, I went off to check out the pool, cabins and the captain’s table which all appeared to have been removed! Finding myself back on deck I settled down to watch the views and soak up the atmosphere. The
Bosphorus is the 32 km (20-mile) strait that joins the
Sea of Marmara with the
Black Seain
Istanbul, and separates the continents of
Europe and
Asia. It is one of the world's busiest commercial shipping channels, with some 140 cargo vessels each day, that’s an awful lot of sailors. The Bosphorus's English name comes from a
Greek legend – I do like a legend, it reminds me of myself! The story goes that Zeus had an
affair with a beautiful women named Io. When Hera, his wife, discovered his infidelity, she turned Io into a cow and created a horsefly to sting her on the bum. Io jumped clear across the strait, it must have been a HUGE fly! So the word
bous = cow, and
poros = crossing-place became
Bosphorus or "crossing-place of the cow." They can now rename it mammothporos, except with the fly bit which might be painful. As we feasted our eyes on the sights on the bank of the European side, with Mosques nestled amongst high rise blocks and museums to stun the most cynical, each new building that greeted us seemed better than the last.
With swanky boats moored at their berths (I found a rather nice one that I’ve added to my Christmas list) we passed the Egyptian Embassy surrounded by some pretty impressive homes that would make a nice summer pad for me, a small island sprang into view which consisted of a huge swimming pool and dockside restaurant, our ever helpful guide told us that this was owned by the famous football club, Galatasaray, hmmm I wonder if daughter Zoe would like to be a W.A.G so I could share her membership!
As we passed the official yacht we all stood entranced by a castle that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. Woolly says – It was mighty impressive and as I tuned to the guide he told of the competition that Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror had used, pitting his generals against one another to be the first to complete his own particular tower meaning that the Fortress of Rumeli Hisari was completed in only four months, what a clever man; I might have to adopt his idea when getting Jo and daughter Zoe to get me fed on time.
With Woolly contemplating his stomachs needs our cruise turned and passed over to the Asian side, where wooden houses dotted the landscape with small pagodas and its own much smaller Fortress ……
Woolly says – My fortress was much better than there’s I’m staying on the European side!
….
wishing this was true we found our boat pulling back into the dock and having dragged a reluctant Mammoth off the pier daughter Zoe and I pushed back onto the coach and our last part of the afternoon. Woolly says – Well I have to say it was worth leaving my fortress behind as we climbed up the steep hills to the view at The Pierre Loti Café, named after the French novelist and naval officer, seeing Istanbul spread out below us I sat and regarded the spectacular spread below while sampling one of the large potato crisps on offer, well it would be rude to refuse. The only downside being getting to the bottom again, I was all for being carried but NO before I could shake my tusk I was inside a little plastic box and hanging from a cable in mid-air, I tried
complaining, I tried shouting, I tried gripping onto the wonderful terra firma but it was not to be and down we went.
Not being a lover of heights I had hesitated at this point as well but with the only other option involving an immense amount of steps, I held onto the scaredy cat and we were down before he could even mention written or formal complaints!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.035s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Paul Drielsma
non-member comment
Woolly
I have to say.... following Woolly and his antics is very entertaining.