I went on a large boat, ferry, from down the street (just a few blocks from my apartment) in Sariyer down the Bosphorous to the tip of the Golden Horn. We exited the boat at the Eminonu stop. I think they go back to Sariyer from there.
The ride was really interesting. I could see the road I take by bus to Kurucesme where the main office I work at is located. After that we passed the college that I have infrequent meetings at as we work with the Coop education group in developing the TLC Academy program for the company I am consulting for, The LifeCo.
There were many beautiful things to see on the way down such as castles, places of worship, and palaces.
Here are some pictures I took. I will be adding more as soon as I get them from my roommate who went with me. You can click on the picture to enlarge it and see the details.
This is Sariyer where we started out on the ferry trip. It’s called the Buyukdere Ferry Station.
The day started out quite bright and beautiful.
The air was cool enough for a jacket yet very relaxing with the warm sun.
As you look to the right (east) of Sariyer you
can see the gateway to the Black Sea.
They are building a bridge there that will connect the
European side of Turkey to the Asian side.
This is a picture of the Bosphorous from my iPhone map. My roommate showed me how to take a picure of anything on my iPhone using the top and front buttons pressing at the same time. COOL!!! I love stuff like that. Now I can show you where we were heading by map and pictures.
This is another town down the way a bit from the town I’m living in. I find it very nice how they put the neighborhoods together here in Istanbul. There are groups of homes along with many small shops containing anything you’d need on a daily basis. When I get home from work I can swing right into a grocery store/farmers market and pick up food for the next couple days. That ensures everything is fresh and full of nutrients. Plus its really nice to support the local farmers.
This is a VERY old fortress called The Rumeli Fortress.
It’s starting to get hazy and smells like it might rain now.
You can see all 3 towers in the first 2 pictures as we are coming up to it. They are the Halil Pasa Tower (closes to the water), the Saruca Pasa Tower (right) and the Zaganos Pasa Tower (left). I pass by this everyday on my way to the Kurucesme office but only can see the large wall.
As we pass it by the Zaganos Pasa Tower comes into clearer view. It’s hard to believe I pass this everyday and can hardly see it. I was so excited to see it from the water. There are so many ancient buildings and everyone is just going about their modern day hardly noticing. There are many places you can see they are building on top of old sites but they protect the most historic sites and buildings.
This is our location on the map and the town with the main office I work at.
There is a man made island in front of the area I work at.
You can take a boat out to it. It’s basically a floating restaurant.
Looks fun but I haven’t done that yet.
Next up is the Ciragan Palace. I realize, as I am writing this, that there are many little squiggles and hats on the letters to pronounce them appropriately but I don’t know how to use my keyboard to put them in. It makes it look fancier too but oh well. This will have to do. 🙂
There are many beautiful buildings along the Bosphorous channel. I hope that they stay above water as the icecaps melt!
There are many additional pictures I will upload of the bridges, other buildings, and sites including pictures of the Asian side. We mostly focused on the European side since that’s where we are living. It was really nice to see everything from this vantage point. I will add pictures of the Hidiv Palace, the Naime Sultan and Hatice Sultan Palaces once I get them from my roommate.
Also, visit me on Instagram for more event photos. Sometimes I can get in a few more pictures because they don’t use such high resolution. My phone keeps running out of space darn it! 😉
We are now approaching The Golden Horn. This was the area I visited last year. I will add some of my pictures from last year here as well since I didn’t get much of a chance to write about my adventures then.
This is a closer view of where we are in the ferry as we approach our destination, Eminonu.
We will exit the Ferry on the south side of the channel east of the Galata Koprusu, which has a metro train that takes you all the way back close to Sariyer.
We hiked around the side we exited the ferry on for quite some time. We saw the Grand Bazzar but didn’t stop. We were in more of a scouting mood than shopping. I have a year here so I am in no rush. I want to explore and see as much as possible.
We walked all the way around, up to and across the bridge north of the first Galata bridge. We walked up to Galata tower and had a very nice veggie and humus meal then got some falafel wraps near the tower. I can’t wait to post the rest of the pictures! We got some cool ones!
I hope you enjoyed this little summary of my adventure. I also hope that you will get the opportunity to come visit Istanbul. It really is a beautiful place to see. People are very friendly. If they know English and you are trying to talk with a vendor they will stop what they are doing and help you. They are a service oriented country and the dollar goes 2.58 times farther here than back in the states. NICE!
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