Istanbul : Cruising the Bosphorus to the Black Sea

 

We spent our last day in Istanbul on a ferry ride up the Bosphorus Sea 1.5 hour away to a small town called Anadolu Kavagi on the Asian side.

 

The Ferry gives you 3 hours in the town before returning you to Istanbul. Anadolu Kavagi has a castle on the top of a hill you can hike to in about 30 minutes and they have lots of great restaurants.

Anadolu Kavagi from the Sea

We had the Istanbul specialty of fresh fish sandwiches! They grill up mackerel freshly caught from the sea, season it up and serve it on a fresh baguette with lettuce and tomatoes. They cook them in carts everywhere here. Along the Galata bridge men fish right over the edge of the bridge and then the fish trucks fry up the sandwiches....people literally stop their car, park in the right lane in both directions of the bridge and eat there sandwiches sitting on the curb. They didn't disappoint!

On top of the hill: the Black Sea behind me and the Bosphorus sea in front of me.

Sarah hiking down from the Castle.

What's my age again?

Fun with wooden playground equipment
 

We finished it up with a waffle bowl full of ice cream, tea and a long hilarious conversation with a group of Turkish men that work at the neighbouring restaurants...we gathered quite a crowd by the time we left. One of the men spoke a little bit of English so we were all chatting while he attempted to translate. It was very funny for all involved. The translator couldn't remember the word for fisherman and called his friend a fish hunter! Ha ha

One of our cute Turkish men that were great company!

Thumbs up for ice cream!