Day 09 – Istanbul – Galata Bridge and a Bosphorus Cruise to Anadolu Kavagi & Yoros Kalesi
I am fuzzy again so this morning I had to head back to the barber for a shave – I didn’t bring a razor this trip – its the barber or nothing!
We then headed down to the docks for a Bosphorus Cruise. You can either go for a short cruise which is a quick 2 hour circle or the long cruise which takes 1.5 hours one way and stops at 5 different places. I like the long cruise because you can get off at the end in Asia by the Black Sea.
While waiting for the ship I pointed out to Amanda the fish restaurants (and people fishing) at the Galata bridge and promised her fresh Bosphorus fish for lunch.
Its really a slow day – we spent most of it on the ship enjoying the sun and the breeze (I think I slept a little) and we saw some of the nice sights from the water such as Dolmabahce Palace and Rumeli Hisari & Anadoluhisari (which we visit later in the week).
When you land at the last stop in Anadolu Kavagi (which is in Asia) you get accosted by every fish restaurant hoping for your business. I let a few of them beckon me over and finally this one guy gave me a good story and we went to his place. They brought out the selection of fresh fish and I selected a large fresh caught bass from the Bosphorus. I had some battered mussels and Amanda had some battered calamari – and even though I’m not a fan you could tell it was good stuff. The big Bosphorus bass was huge and awesome – we ate it for some time – really just a lazy day and then headed for a taxi.
The driver told us that round trip to Yoros Kalesi the castle on the hill was 25TL and I asked about going further up the Black Sea which he said he could do for another 50TL but we were going to run out of time. I was excited to see that more of the castle was open. The first year I went it was all open and last year all closed for an archeology excavation – this year they let you into more. It was nice seeing the active dig but better seeing deep into the Black Sea – it just opens so wide in this expanse of blue.
We also did a little bit of shopping in the village but the last boat left at 5pm and we were on it.
Back on the boat we saw more of the shoreline and just sat back and relaxed some more. We headed back to the hotel and went for a Chinese dinner.
Its a strange restaurant, the food is just OK, but after 9 days it was a welcome difference. We also stopped at a dessert restaurant which was crazy – the menu was a giant full color glossy picture book – I wanted to steal it – instead I just ordered too much crap and we took a lot of it with us.
Again – a lazy (yet active) day.
Tomorrow a long walking day – no previews though 🙂
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