On The Bosphorus Strait
Yes, we have made it!
This is Cindy on the Asian side with the European side of Istanbul in the background. It looks like the Hagia Sophia on the far left. We plan on going to see it up close this weekend. The large sprawling building on the right is Topkapi Palace. But let's back-up and catch you up to what we have been doing the last 5 days!
Sunday and Monday: We left our home and kitty with a house sitter on Sunday.
Ben was stopped at the Seattle ticketing counter for having a too heavy carry-on. So yes, we were those people you see repacking all there bags on the airport floor. Ben was stopped again in Seattle airline security for having a full size pair of scissors and a utility gadget in his carry-on that had a sharp little blade that popped out on the guard as she was searching his bag. He was allowed to keep the scissors and he broke off the little blade so ho could keep the gadget. At that point, Cindy just pretended she didn't know Ben.
We had seats all the way in the last row of seats on the plane, row 47? They were fine, we were across the isle from each other. That's what happens when you book at the last minute!
The first leg was 10 hours to Frankfurt. We then had about 3 hours layover in the Frankfurt airport. Ben had some energy to explore because he slept about 4 hours on the plane. Cindy did not sleep on the plane, so she was pooped.
Ben's scissors and a box cutter got noticed and taken by the German security. He is so lucky he was not stripped searched!
Our flight from Frankfurt to Istanbul was delayed about 2 hours once we were loaded onto the plane due to the baggage loaders being on strike. Cindy was just watching them wonder around on the tarmac until they had delayed us enough, that our pilots had to be switched out. It was nice that the plane was not very full at all and we had three seats to ourselves. Once we had eaten, we both fell fast asleep.
We arrived in Istanbul at about 8:00pm local time. It took about 2 hours to get our luggage (4 checked bags and 4 carry-ons), find a taxi and get driven to our hotel. The drive from the airport to our hotel was crazy. Seattle, you have nothing to complain about! Traffic here is insane. Ben has his work cut out for him.
Once we got to the hotel and checked in, we showered, ordered room service dinner and fell asleep.
Tuesday: We slept in and then got up and ready to go explore the area around and head towards Ben's office. We are right by a waterfront walkway that winds all along the Bosphorus Strait. That is the picture at the top of this post. We saw all the stray dogs and cats sleeping and hanging out. Don't feel too bad for them, they get socialized health care. They are all fixed and tagged, gathered up each year and given the required shots. They all seem very happy, it's just strange to see them out on their own, sleeping wherever.
We had our first taste of Turkish coffee at a little outdoor cafe.
It was pretty good, just don't drink the bottom with all the grounds in it! Both cost 7 Turkish lira, so about 3.99 USD. We were getting hungry, so we started looking at the food vendors along the way. We found one of many doner kabobs, this is a big chunk of meat that cooks as it rotates in front of a vertical grill; the chef cuts off thin slices that are served in sandwich bread with lettuce and tomato.
We saw many sites along the way, like this common practice of shooting balloons with a gun right out in the walkway! See the gun by the guy in brown? You pay him a few lira and you can shoot a few balloons or any of the other targets set-up.
An old Ottoman house, still standing right on a really busy street and by more modern buildings. Cindy is fascinated by these and has taken pictures of them whenever they are spotted.
Just when we were getting tired, and not sure where we were, Ben called his boss. We thought we were about 1/2 way to Ben's new office, but we had just walked a few block from it. This made us very happy. Ben's boss, Gordon, came and met us where we were and took us to the office. Here is Ben at his new office space:
He has no computer set up yet and it is in a two story trailer. This is a design and build project, so they are located right by the building site. It's not all that bad, they get lunch made for them each day and tea and coffee brought around to them at their desk about 4 times a day. Once we got a tour of the trailer, Gordon and the other PB engineer that is there, Jimmy, took off for the rest of the day to show us around Istanbul. This was a very quick paced tour, we saw the market area right off the waterfront we were walking earlier, with the small alley like roads.
Gordon treated us to a glass of fresh squeezed pomegranate juice from this fruit stand. You can see Ben with his gray hoodie on, and to this left is Gordon with his hat on and Jimmy is on Ben's right with the black jacket on, looking towards the camera. It was so good and refreshing. Thanks for sharing this find Gordon!
We then walked through the fish market. Here is Ben and Gordon trying to look good next to these ugly fish. We have so many wonderful pictures of the markets that you will have to see when we add those albums to the blog.
We then took the ferry at sunset to the European side to run through the Spice Market and have dinner.
We did stop at this Mosque to pray while prayer was going on. We had to take our shoes off, Cindy put her scarf over her hair and she stayed in the back of the mosque, while the men went more forward.
This is just a teaser of the Spice Market. We really just ran through a small part of it. We plan on going back and spending more time looking a little closer.
Here is Gordon and Ben at Hamdi Restaurant. It had a 180 degree view of the Golden Horn, Bosphorus Strait, and the Old and New European sides. It was amazing. We had great appetizers with wonderfully fresh pitas and flat bread. We all had some kind of sis (shish) kebabs. Very nice. Thanks again Gordon!
We walked back across the Galata Bridge to catch a different ferry back to the Asian side. Here are fisherman fishing off the Galata Bridge and trying to stay warm with their fire.
We hope this gets and keeps your interest in our journey. We will be adding more pictures when Cindy can figure out the best way to post a massive amount of pictures at once. Ben should be on his way home this now Friday evening and Cindy needs to wash some underwear by hand. Our goal is to find an apartment in the next week. This hotel living is getting expensive and is not very convenient!
