Highlights:
- Visited the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sernıcı) – highly recommended!
- Did a 6 hour Bosphorus cruise, almost all the way to the Black Sea – highly recommended!
- Enjoyed a cheese börek and çay (tea) for a whopping TL4/$2.30 at lunch today
- Enjoyed a large vegetarian dinner at a lokanta just off of Istiklal Caddessi for TL8/$4.60 – and they actually had whole wheat bread, a rarity here
Details:
Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sernıcı):
- TL10/$6, plus an optional audio tour for TL5/$3 (I was in a rush so I skipped that)
- Cool! (literally and figuratively)
- Huge 200x70m underground water “tank” with a few hundred Greek temple sized columns holding up the roof
- Two carved Medusa heads used to prop up two pillars. One head is sideways, and one is upside down
- Carp swimming in the water
- History: fell into disuse and was discovered in 16th century by a French archaelogist who noticed locals fishing by lowering a bucket through holes in their floors!
Bosphorus cruise:
- TL15/$9 or TL25/$14 round-trip, plus an optional audio tour for TL5/$3 (remember ID or TL100 deposit)
- The basic (public) ferry run starts at 10:30am and takes 90 minutes to reach the furthest of 6 stops: Anadolu Kavağı on the Asian side.
- 3 hours later, the ferry does the 90 minute multi-stop run back to Eminönü
- You can get off at any port and catch the return ferry, or take a bus back to town
- The audio tour added extra info, as well as showing images of the insides of buildings you cruise by, so it’s worth getting.
Tip: if you have good or noise cancelling headphones, you might want to bring them as the headsets I received flopped a little on my ears (rectified when I put my toque on, as it was cold on the outside deck) and there is a lot of background noise from all the passengers. - Tip: show up early to get a good seat on the outside edge of the ferry for easier photo taking.
- So what do you see? A few palaces and lots of palatial waterfront homes. Wow. In various architectural styles. And of course mosques, neighbourhoods on the waterfront and on the hills behind them, the boats, the fishing villages, tower ruins, go under 2 bridges connecting continents, etc.
- At the far end you see the Black Sea where the Bosphorus river begins (apparently the Sea of Marmara by Istanbul old town is 30cm lower than the Black Sea, so you always get a current heading south. And the water does look pretty clean, despite seeing cargo ships and cruise liners.
- I ended up taking a bus from small Anadolu Kavağı (lots of fish restaurants, and not much else) to Kanlıca (which is the 2nd ferry stop, about half way time-wise up Bosphorus), though there wasn’t much more to see there, before re-boarding the ferry as it headed back, 3 hours later. The bus ride followed the Bosphorus a fair bit through other neighbourhoods, so it was interesting enough and different view than the ferry.
- There is a “famous” yoghurt made in Kanlıca though I didn’t find it to be anything special (sweet and 3.75% fat). You can buy it on shore or on the ferry.
Photos:
