Istanbul Day 5: a trip along the Bosphorous

Today, we decided to walk down the hill from Sultanahmet and catch a ferry to take a tour of the Bosphorous from Eminonu (where the Galata Bridge is) nearly up to the opening to the Black Sea.  We had been told that there were great photo opportunities plus the chance to visit a fishing village.  We should have been told to bring cash, since the fare can not be paid by credit card and if you want refreshments or an audioguide, you also need cash.

Although we arrived half and hour early, most people seemed to have arrived much earlier and there was a race to get the best positions.  These are on the roof or outside, at the front or the back of the boat.  Although windier, you get better photos without dirty window panes between you and the scenery.  Plus, we hired the audio guide to share between us, since there is no commentary on board, and even though we were sitting by a window initially, the poor reception meant that the tape kept moving ahead or lagging behind the boat, so it was quite confusing knowing what we were looking at. If inside, sit on the upper left on the left as the boat seems to stick to that shore.

As the ferry leaves the Golden Horn, the estuary that separates Istanbul in two, you can get great photos of the old part of the city

and the newer part.

 

As you turn into the Bosphorous, you can get good photos of  famous landmarks - mainly the abodes or former abodes of the rich and famous - like Dolmabahce Palace,

 

  and landmarks like the Ortakoy Mosque which is at the foot of the Bosphorous Bridge

or the contrast between the old and the new

 

The cruise is also a great opportunity to get views of the towns and villages which now seem to form suburbs of modern Istanbul 

and the woods that still remain

Although most Istanbul residents live in rather ugly apartment blocks it is clear on this trip that some can afford rather gorgeous houses too.

 The other nice aspect of the trip is that you can people watch both locals and tourists.  we got into a conversation with a nice Spanish couple who were as confused as we were about how the cruise was organised.  They were a bit stunned that, although Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world, nobody speaks or understands it.  Sorry people, English is the lingua franca!

 We didn't get to see the Black Sea, but we did get to see the new bridge just before it:

The trip takes 1/12 hours, and although it stops at some villages, you can't just hop on and off as you like.  The main destination, for some reason, is the fishing village of  Anadolu Kavagi which, although it looks fine from the water,

is extremely disappointing from the shore.  And, we had chosen the long cruise, as advised, so we had 3 hours to spend there!  From the boat, the village appeared to be very long with lots to see.  When we arrived however, we discovered that we were confined by the rebuilding of the roads that was occurring to the rather tatty looking souvenir shops and the very aggressively competitive fish restaurants.  It was a hole!

 We tried to stroll around but you can't get up to the the Yoros Kalesi (castle), which would have given rather good views.   The local dogs were full of ticks so we avoided touching them.  The foreshore is covered with private buildings so we couldn't paddle. We did enjoy some of the humour, like this display in a shop window, which shows the EU and the USA dividing a turd between them to eat.

 But the the friendliness of many of the non-sales locals, the evident resignation of others of the locals who realised we weren't going to buy anything

and the discovery of gravestones with turbans

did not fill in much time.  We resigned ourselves to having a very prolonged and expensive lunch and watching the local bully who ran the restaurant beside ours, verbally and physically abuse his neighbours as he tried to keep all the business for himself.

Half an hour before the ferry was due to leave, there was a huge queue outside the exit gate on the dock.  When they finally opened the gates, they opened the no admittance gate just to trick us and we all hurled ourselves on board with great alacrity and relief.  I don't think we would do the long trip again.

Back in lovely Istanbul, we were treated  to some local musicians playing instruments and singing