We woke up late again on our last full day in Istanbul. Most people in our dorm room were late to bed as were we so it couldn't be helped. Your schedule is rather dictated by other people when you stay in a dorm room, especially one as cramped as ours. Our room smelt like a monkey house too as two guys who were cycling across Turkey had moved into our dorm the night before and their bags stank! Not surprising given the extreme heat.
After our usual hostel brekkie we set off for the Eminonu docks to catch a Bosphorous ferry. As you probably already know, Istanbul is famous as it is the only city in the world that is built on two continents, Europe and Asia. The two sides are separated by the Bosphorous Sea. The docks were a bit confusing but after some messing about we decided to get the more expensive 25 lira long circle cruise that would take us way up to some far flung places on the Asian side. There were shorter, cheaper (10 lira) cruises available but we'd just missed one of course. We jumped aboard our big old passenger ferry, grabbed a seat on the outer edge so we could have a good view and settled in for a day of sitting around rather than walking - bliss! We saw lots of jellyfish in the water and cormorants diving for fish. There was plenty of rubbish too unfortunately. Actually, one of the things we noticed about the ferries was how much smoke they poured pout of their chimneys. The smog over the sea was pretty disgusting and hung over Istanbul in a visible pall.
The New Mosque seen from our ferry on the Bosphorous.
Suspension bridge - dunno what it was called though.
Forests of aerials adorn the hillsides on the Asian side of Istanbul.
Turkish flags could be seen flying everywhere on both sides of the Bosphorous. This is the greener, less densely populated Asian side where most locals apparently prefer to live as the European side, thoguh containing most of the important sites, is really crowded.
Look carefully! We saw dolphins, lots of them from our ferry. At one point, 3 or 4 of them were swimming right beside us!
After cruising for an hour or more, we arrived at the little fishing village of Anadolu Kavagi, on the Asian side of Istanbul. We grabbed some ice cream to cool off from the intense heat and made the steep climb up to Yoros Kalesi, an old ruined castle on the hills above the village.
The village of Anadolu Kavagi with Yoros Castle perched above as viewed from our ferry.
Pretty scene on the extremely steep climb up to the castle.
The confluence of the Black Sea and the Bosphorous Sea as seen from Yoros Castle.
A scary but cool looking rusty metal sign warning visitors to keep out as it was a military zone just beyond the castle ruins.
The castle ruins.
We rushed back down the hill from the castle to make it back onto our ferry and just made it. The cruise back was relaxing but we didn't see anymore dolphins. After disembarking form the boat, we had a wander around the Spice Bazaar and saw some huge blocks of cheese and lots of cheap, tasty looking fresh fruit for sale. We bought a half kilo of fat, shiny cherries that were much cheaper than we'd get them for in the UK and much tastier. Even I ate them and I usually hate all fruit.
A cherry juice vendor pouring a cup for a customer. This stuff was super sour and delicious!
Stall at the Spice Bazaar.
We set off ion search of the Rustem Pasha mosque next but got lost and ended up at the Suleymaniye Mosque instead. It was a truly beautiful building and one of the nicest mosques we'd seen so far which is really saying something! It is the second largest mosque n Istanbul and was built in 1550 by the order of Sultan "Suleyman the Magnificent".
Tall slender minaret of the Suleymaniye Mosque.
Domes and more domes made up the mosques roof.
Inside the mosque.
The beautiful ceiling of the mosque. The architect was heavily influenced by the design of the Hagia Sofia, a Byzantine domed church.
After enjoying the cool, beautiful interior of the mosque, we zigzagged through the city and ended p by the supermarket near our hostel where we bought some pasta rice and the world's biggest aubergine. Rowan cooked us some food in the hostel that night to save some money and we packed ready for the next country on our itinerary - Georgia!
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