ISTANBUL, TURKEY ON OUR OWN (PART 4, including Bosphorus Cruise and Glimpse of Black Sea)—May 17-28, 2013

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ISTANBUL, TURKEY ON OUR OWN (PART 4, including Bosphorus Cruise and Glimpse of Black Sea)—May 17-28, 2013

We decided to book a cruise through the hotel desk on the Bosphorus that sailed as far north as the Black Sea. What sold us on this particular tour was the fact that they would pick you up and drop you off at your hotel.

So, on a clear, sunny, Sunday after an early breakfast, we got ready and waited in the main hotel lobby for our ride. And waited--finally after a half hour the desk clerk called to see what was going on and found that we were not on the bus driver’s list of people to be picked up. A taxi was sent for us and away we went to meet up with the bus in route from picking the others up. We climbed into the back of the small bus and settled into the last two seats.

We drove out of Istanbul proper and into the suburbs and then after some time down to a small quaint town located right on the water with an old fort towering over it. The fort is called Rumeli and was built in just four months time by Mehmed II at the narrowest point of the strait (660 meters). It was built to control the sea traffic and prevent foreign military aid from the Black Sea reaching Constantinople during the Turkish siege of the city in 1453.

We boarded the small excursion boat and settled in at tables on the lower deck as the upper deck didn't have a canopy over the top and it was frankly too hot in the direct sun for us. Our guide talked in English first about Turkey in general and then about the narrow water-way between the Black sea and the Sea of Marmara through the Dardanelles and then into the MediterraneanOcean.

The Bosphorus is now international waters, but a tax and fees are paid to Turkey and ships must use a Turkish pilot. This waterway is not in any way straight and has many curves plus some very strong currents. More ships go through it in a day than through the Suez or the PanamaCanals and at the same time ferries are darting back and forth across it. Ships going south to north are usually empty and north to south are full of petrol, gas, and chemicals.

We started out cruising along the European side past old and modern villas at the waters’ edge and covering the low hills. We then crossed to the Asian side where we remained until we reached the Black Sea. The guide pointed out the various significant points as we cruised.

We were served lunch of grilled chicken breast with several small scoops of different stuff like hot pepper "paste," a biber dolma pepper, I think, stuffed with a mixture of sticky rice, pine nuts, spices, and currants, and the usual grilled tomatoes. We were offered lemonade or real coke to drink and thankfully, I had a bottle of tea with me.

The Asian shore was also lined with villas, a couple of palaces, fortifications, and then the Turkish Naval Base. This side seemed rougher, rockier, and hillier than the European shore. Near the Black Sea, you could see where a new bridge is being built to be opened in 2015. It will have two levels with the bottom built for trains. Designed primarily for quicker transport between Eastern Europe and Asia, this bridge should take some of the traffic out of Istanbul.

We curved right and into the bay of the fishing village of Poyrazkoy protected by a sea wall. We declined to walk up the many, many steps to the village on the top of the cliff and instead walked down a dirt road to where we could see people playing in the water.

Restaurants lined the narrow sandy strip of beach and we crossed through one to get to the water. Our goal was to put our feet in the water of the Black Sea, which we did and then we walked back to the boat. Since we still had a bit of time left, Valerie walked out in the other direction and got pictures of the fishing boats and the fishermen repairing their nets as apparently the commercial fishing season was just over.

When everyone was aboard, we cruised back along the Asian side and then under the F. Sultan Mehmet Bridge, past the port village we left from, and on toward the docks by the DolmabahcePalace. One of the buildings that was pointed out to us was the Selimye Barracks, which at one time was a BoysHigh School attended by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1845. It then became a BritishHospital where Florence Nightingale worked with the wounded from the Crimean War in about 1854 and is now a museum.

As we made the turn to go into the dock you could get a good view of the Maiden's Tower that has been used as a customs station, part of a defensive chain strung across the channel, a garrison, a watch tower, a lighthouse, and most recently a restaurant. There is a Turkish legend that tells a story about how it got its name that involves a maiden, a Sultan father, an oracle's prediction, and an asp.

Our last night in Turkey we had dinner near our hotel in an old 1763 cistern converted to a caravanserai and now used by a couple restaurants and clothing shops. I had lamb kebobs and Valerie had a veal steak--of course with fries, rice, grilled tomatoes, eggplant, and the ever present long pale green sivri biber pepper.

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