cruises and goodbyes
It had quickly come to the end of my time with mum, we had covered a lot of ground in 4 weeks and while moved quickly, we didnt see everything but we saw enough and some really cool things. Mum leaving was like the end of my first chapter of my trip. For our last full day we went on a cruise up the Bosphorus which is a stretch of water connecting the sea in Istanbul to the black sea. We got there nice and early to get a good seat on the 1.5 hour trip up to the end.
On the trip we went past lots of palaces and mosques along the water and lots of flash houses, some had little boats and had built parts to swim in. It was a really nice way to go down the river and we crossed over between Asia and Europe which is seperated by the Bosphorus as we pulled into ports along the way.
We ended up at a town at the end where we had 3 hours before returning to Istanbul. Pretty much there were just restaurants and the whole thing was set up for all the tourists on the boat. We tried to get away from the restuarants and tried walking along the water a bit, but most of the town was actually some sort of military camp so we were somewhat restricted. There is a fort thing up the hill and we walked a bit of the way but it was too hot so we gave up and had a drink at a cafe, we had seen enough ruins of buildings anyway. We did grab some cheap food before heading back onto the bus where we napped most of the way home. We went via the spice market home getting some yummy ice-cream and really good pistachio nougat stuff…it was all yum and lots of Turkish delight for sale as well, which funnily enough I haven’t had while being here.
Back home to recuperate before heading out to the Hammam, something mum has wanted to do the whole time, a hammam is like a bath house where you get body scrubbed and things. I am never that pumped about massages and saunas but it seems like the thing to do and the place we went to has been around for over 500 years so is an amazing building. Afterwards I was less than pumped, it cost a lot of money and unsure why I should pay to sweat lots and be really hot when I feel that hot sweaty most of the day and try to avoid it! Lying around on hot marble with lots of naked people getting scrubbed by a crazy old topless turkish women was not really my idea of a fun time. I felt pretty light headed afterwards after being so hot for so long, admittedly I did feel clean but not much more than having a cold shower after a hot day in the sun. But that is me, and lots of people enjoy the whole experience. Perhaps if it didn’t cost $50 it would be a bit better. But anyway feeling clean and scrubbed we got some corn and wandered back to the hotel to pack up our stuff, my bag feeling considerably lighter haing pawned stuff off to mum!
In the morning we woke up to hundreds of police walking the streets and barriers being put up everywhere, this had been happening for the last few days but this morning it was all go as today the Iranian president was coming to pray in the blue mosque which was right by our hotel. The security was unbelievable and every police officer and secret service must have been around us. Everywhere was people with guns blocking off roads and cars.
It was kind of a pain and mums airport shuttle couldn’t get into where we were so she had to walk for a bit. So mum left and I was once again alone and trying to make it to the bus station through the police who were blocking the way to get the tram to get to the bus station. I ended up walking up and down these streets for about 45 minutes to get to the tram which should normally take about 5minutes. I was hot and sweaty and def. not clean any more by the time I got there. A tram ride and a metro ride later I arrived at the main bus station minutes before my bus left on the 5 hour drive west to Cannakale for my last few days in Turkey.
Tags: TRAVELS 2008, Turkey
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