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So this blog I am going to start off by saying that I am writing this super quick, so please forgive my spelling errors, grammar errors, and/or other typos!
I never thought I looked like I was from Spain. Until Now. Everyone keeps saying "Hola" to me. It ALWAYS catches me off guard because I am used to China where everyone says "Hello, Hello missy", and I respond to them in Spanish or Italiano because it throws them off. Here I don't know what to speak... maybe some Chinese... is that believable??
So today we are taking a cruise down the Bosphorus to the area of the Black Sea. It is about 20-25 miles to get from Central Istanbul (European side) where the ferry docks at Anadolu Kavagi. We get to the ferry station to go from Europe and Asia trying to hurry because we are concerned we are going to be late. (If you don't get there early, you don't get a good seat on the cruise) I give Charles some money to pay for the ferry while I am paying the taxi. (Since I am the senior, I am required to pay for this for reimbursement purposes, I promise that Charles doesn't think I am his sugar mama.) So Lyuba and I are running to the ferry station and Charles comes up to us and asks if we have our passports. So random, of course not, mine is in my safe in my room! Apparently the guards at the station were asking to see passports. I decide, well, they can try, I am getting on my cruise, I will feign ignorance and let them get frustrated with me until they let me get on the ferry. Well, no need. They completely ignored us going into the station. Charles was thinking that maybe they were looking for someone specific, and when they saw him with Lyuba and me that they figured that Charles wasn't their guy. So we are standing in line for our cruise tickets at Eminonu and these people (more "Hola's) were trying to get us to take a different cruise. We stayed put. The roundtrip is only 17.5 Lira (cash only) - not bad, considering!
So we get a good seat in the shade (thank god, or cranky, overheated and miserable Katie would not have been fun). As we leave I see these wierd white things floating in the water - they are jellyfish!!
On our trip up the river, we saw a lot of interesting mosques (such as Dolmabahce, Mecidiye, and Iskele), palaces (such as Ciragan and Beylerbeyi), and some awesome little towns. We saw kids jumping off the side of the road into the Bosphorus - which considering the jellyfish and how far away the ladders to get back onto the street were... this was impressive. I loved all the Mediterranean style houses - especially since they all had satellite TV dishes on them. There were so many different boats on the water - sailboats, small fishing boats, cruise ships, freight ships, etc. We also saw some people with 3 labs in the water, trying to teach a 4th dog to swim.
I was excited to get to see the European Fortress called Rumeli Hisarı - I had seen it on my taxi drive in, but it wasn't super close to where we were. It was built between 1451-1452 to help Mehmet the Conqueror capture Constantinople. Another cool place was Yenikoy - they are all water front villas dating from the Byzantine era. It kinda reminded me of a mix between New Orleans and Venice with the colorful buildings right on the water. There were a lot of fishing villages too (which explains why there is so many fish specials at the restaurants.)
Finally we get to Anadolu Kavagi, which is on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. By this time, it was probably 1pm and soooo hot. We wanted to hike up to the Yoros Castle, which is a ruined castle that was built a couple hundred years before being conquered by the Ottomans in 1305. (They don't really know how old it is). While hiking up there, we didn't know if we were going to make it. Lyuba and I were miserable, and Charles mocked us by dramatically jogging up the hill. At least it made us laugh. The village seems to not be taken very good care of.. there is a lot of trash, etc. on the streets. I don't know what the population is, but there were a lot of people who were just visiting the castle/village for the day.
Charles was telling us about how the area where the Bosphorus River meets the Black Sea is occupied by Turkish military. Well, we saw plenty of signs in Turkish that anyone could tell meant "Do not enter or you will be shot". We kept walking. Getting to the top was a serious workout, but worth it. The views were amazing. The castle itself was definitely a "ruined" castle, but the colors of the bricks and the views of both the super-blue River and Sea were amazing. We posed for some pictures, walked around the ruins, and hiked back down the hill.
There are a lot of stray dogs/cats in the area. I saw a group of people stopping by a dog. They found a piece of trash (looked like some kind of Tupperware) that they tried to clean out, and they gave the dog some of their water in this little dish. On such a blistering hot day, I had to stop and smile.
So we decide to eat lunch before getting back on the boat. Everyplace we go, they only have fish. Nothing but fish... but they had Coke Zero everywhere. So Fish and Coke Zero. We finally find a pizza place, that - you guessed it - had fish and Coke Zero too.
Finally we board the boat on the way back. As we are waiting for everyone to get on the boat, the water is so clear that we can see the fish on the boat next to us eating the barnicles off the bottom. It was a clear aqua color. but there were jellyfish, so I wasn't getting anywhere near it. On the way back, we sat on a different side of the boat so that we could see the things we missed on the way up. The view was definitely not as good on the way back because we were farther from that shore, so it was harder to see. We were all tired, sticky, and, well, tired.
What a great weekend!! Since I am actually writing this on August 22, I head home in 15 hours. I am excited to get home, but I really had a great experience here in Turkey. Love you!
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