After Canakkale we entered the Sea of Marmara and overnighted on Avsa Island in an unfinished marina. It's been like this for well over 10 years but we don't know why - if the poor condition of the concreting is anything to go by it could have been a dispute that ended in it not being finished. It was a great spot to stay and wait for a good weather window to get across to Istanbul which is about a 10 hour trip. We eventually left with a bit of a head wind that slowed us up a bit but not too badly.

I had booked us into Via Port Marina as friends from Didim had wintered there last year and may still have been there. They'd changed phone numbers so I hadn't been in contact. Through a lady on one of the facebook sites I watch (who was in the marina) it turned out that both boats (people) had just returned from Europe and were in fact there! We all went to a sushi restaurant one night and had a good catch up. The marina has a large shopping mall and supermarket attached to it but otherwise was not very good - dirty water, seagulls shelling mussels all over the boat, and expensive power and water.

Peter and I went into Istanbul for two nights. It was an hour on a very good train even though it did stop about 20 times! We stayed at the Edibe Sultan Hotel again (our overnight on the way home last year) and they had recommended a tour guide for us and organised our booking on a Bosphorus River dinner cruise. We weren't quite sure what to expect from the cruise as sometimes they can be ghastly sorts of things but luckily it was really quite good. Different Turkish dances and a Whirling Dervish even! The food was good with unlimited local alcohol and night views of various palaces and mosques. The pick up from the hotel was interesting - it involved a man running in and saying "follow me" whereupon we had to rush after him for about a kilometre to where he had left the bus parked on a crossing at a set of traffic lights!
We had decided to get a private tour guide as we didn't want to go to all of the places some of the regular tours went ie the Grand Bazaar, as we have been there twice. Our lady was excellent with very good English and knowledge. Tour operators and guides in Turkiye have to be licenced and are tested every year to get their pass. We were able to say where we wanted to go and got to jump all the queues. Even in this off season there were tourists everywhere and over an hour waiting times. The Blue Mosque is closed at the moment (it has been for 5 years) for maintenance. Apparently the faithful used to break off bits of mosaic for souvenirs and even eat bit of concrete to take away something holy! Istanbul is an incredible city with so much continuous and ancient history. We obviously only saw the highlights but you could seriously spend weeks and weeks exploring. The public transport is excellent - you could never get a car around the place! The touristy areas were clean and organised and we felt safe, but I'm sure there are some pretty terrible areas - 20 million people… So I'll leave it to the photos to describe….Hagia Sofia, the Cistern, Topkapi Palace, Dolmabance Palace, the Spice Bazaar, The Galata Tower, the Hippodrome, Taksim Square and Istiklal Street (easily as good as any of the best shopping streets in Europe). A very memorable experience all round.
We are now back tracking down to Didm. Stopped at Bozcaada Island again and found it totally transformed now that Ramadam is over! Everything open and busy. We stocked up on some more of the very reasonable wine and drank beer in warm sunshine after some freezing days further north.