Istanbul

 

We transited through the Dardanelle Straights at night, but I woke up several times to see the lights in several towns and a huge bridge. In the morning we had reached the Sea of Marmara and were heading for Istanbul. A cloudy day but no rain so far. This is the coldest day we've had, only about 15C. There are a lot more ships here, mainly freighters. Istanbul is a huge city, about 16 million official inhabitants so it's very spread out. It's a very exciting sail in trying to spot some of the famous buildings like Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. As we're circling around to dock the Moslem call to prayer is sounding all around us.

We dock about 2pm, and shortly after get the all clear to go ashore. I'm doing a walking tour, though we are bused to the old part of the city to start it. Because this is the last day of Bayrami, the celebration after the end of Ramadan it's incredibly busy and many things like the Grand Bazaar are closed. All public transport is free, so every ferry, every tram, every bus is crammed to capacity. Traffic is chaotic, and every park, square and sidewalk is jammed as well. We go into a Mosque with gorgeous tile work, and also a small museum with very old tile work depicting day to day life. We then walk through many streets of the old town seeing the many beautiful mosques, including Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, the square where the Hippodrome used to be, with the ancient obliques. We then wander around some of the shops on the outside of the Grand Bazaar which are open today, but I must admit I'm feeling shopped out! Our bus driver takes us a great circle route to avoid the worst of the traffic, and we get back to the ship about 7:30pm. The day has gotten much nicer, and the sun came out at the end of the day. It's still cold though. The ferry traffic never seems to stop, and as it gets dark the lights on the city and on the harbour are incredible!