Picture guide: Read on the Bosphorus Ferry. Read & Kari hiking up to the Byzantine Fort. Kari at the Spıce Market.
Dad and I are currently at the airport waiting to head out to Antalya.
Istanbul was great--just wish I were awake for more of it. Seems my body has decided that 6:30pm is my Turkish bedtime, so 2 of our 3 nights I laid down for a quick snooze and then woke up at midnight with no reco
llection of my father's repeated attempts to rouse me. I guess finals must have hit harder than I realized. Now, if Nina were here I'm sure we'd jump up and scout out some Turkish nightlife...but that's a bit weird with one's father in tow. Dad's great fun, don't get me wrong, but travelling with dear old dad is, as some might put it, instant birth control.
Despite losing evening outings, we managed to stuff quite a bit into our 2 ½ days in Istanbul. The Turkish bath and Grand Bazaar the first day; the great mosque/palace tour and traditional dinner the next and then the ferry ride yesterday. The ferry up the Bosphorus bopped about from the Asian to European side. Dad commented several times on how we were at the spot where these two continents "shake hands". Clever dad, very clever. I told dad that, yes, it was awesome to ride along the crack of the continents...
Upon completing the phrase I realızed that perhaps it might be wise to continue with the shaking hands metaphor.
We got to our end stop and they let us loose to scramble up a hill to the amazing ruins of a Byzantine fortress. From the top you could see a beautiful view of the Bosphorus as well
as where it opened up into the Black Sea. After all those years of geography lessons it really is incredible to be in these places. Almost as great was the bottle of wine we proceeded to consume with an Australian friend directly following our hike--it was great for two reasons: 1) it's quite tricky finding alcohol in a pervasively Muslim country and 2) it turned out to be forty lira, not fourteen as dad had thought the waiter said. No matter where you go, you can always count on people to rip off ignorant tourists. God bless consistency.
Istanbul was great--just wish I were awake for more of it. Seems my body has decided that 6:30pm is my Turkish bedtime, so 2 of our 3 nights I laid down for a quick snooze and then woke up at midnight with no reco
llection of my father's repeated attempts to rouse me. I guess finals must have hit harder than I realized. Now, if Nina were here I'm sure we'd jump up and scout out some Turkish nightlife...but that's a bit weird with one's father in tow. Dad's great fun, don't get me wrong, but travelling with dear old dad is, as some might put it, instant birth control.Despite losing evening outings, we managed to stuff quite a bit into our 2 ½ days in Istanbul. The Turkish bath and Grand Bazaar the first day; the great mosque/palace tour and traditional dinner the next and then the ferry ride yesterday. The ferry up the Bosphorus bopped about from the Asian to European side. Dad commented several times on how we were at the spot where these two continents "shake hands". Clever dad, very clever. I told dad that, yes, it was awesome to ride along the crack of the continents...
Upon completing the phrase I realızed that perhaps it might be wise to continue with the shaking hands metaphor.
We got to our end stop and they let us loose to scramble up a hill to the amazing ruins of a Byzantine fortress. From the top you could see a beautiful view of the Bosphorus as well
as where it opened up into the Black Sea. After all those years of geography lessons it really is incredible to be in these places. Almost as great was the bottle of wine we proceeded to consume with an Australian friend directly following our hike--it was great for two reasons: 1) it's quite tricky finding alcohol in a pervasively Muslim country and 2) it turned out to be forty lira, not fourteen as dad had thought the waiter said. No matter where you go, you can always count on people to rip off ignorant tourists. God bless consistency. I've just uploaded another series of pics to flickr, so feel free to take a peek... Hope all is well in whatever part of the world you're in.
