The Bosphorus Strait part II

Wednesday October 17th

The sunshine greeted us once again as we got up today. We ate our Turkish breakfasts and, in what is rapidly becoming a gastronomic tradition, Marcus got my egg [I don't know if you are familiar with Turkish breakfasts but they consist of the following: Honey, bread, Turkish goat's cheese (known as white cheese) black and/or green olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, Cay(tea) and lots of eggs. Turks love eggs. Boiled, scrambled, fried, grilled, poached. They love 'em. I don't know if you are familiar with my eating habits. But I detest eggs. Just to paint correct picture] and I got his olives.

We headed down to the harbour by Galata bridge; this time on the tram. We caught a boat heading north up the Bosphorus Strait all the way to Anadolu Kavagili. This is a lovely little fishing town near the delta of Karadeniz - the Black Sea. The boat dropped us off in the harbour and we struck out of town. The Lonely Planet: which is to be our bible for the next year. Suggested this hike should take 50 mins. They obviously were basing this on tours they did with their geriatric grandparents - it took us two, fat - olive and egg fuelled - b*stards 20mins; probably because we were gagging for lunch. The panorama from top is amazing you can see all the way to Istanbul and then off into the Black Sea. We stood within the walls of a ruined castle and surveyed the shipping routes of the hundreds of boats that sail this route everyday. I believe it runs into hundreds of thousands a year. Bear in mind the significance of this. You'll be drawn to it again in a couple of posts. Marcus and I fecked around in the ruins having a big argument over who was the king of the castle and who was the dirty rascal; this is how much of our conversations go... we then went and had lunch.

Lunch was pretty tasty - it was fresh sea bass. Marcus, being the fat b*stard that he is, ordered the three course deal. I just had fish. Nothing really eventful happened. We had a beer. Marcus got fatter. He told me that only king of the castles had 3 course meals and dirty rascals had none. I told him I was allowing the dirty rascal to eat in the presence of royalty to show all my subjects my leniency; even towards fat b*stards. Three wasps continuously flew round our food so we but some beer and sugar in an ash-tray to distract them. They then got pissed and went absolutely mental on sugar and alcohol and kicked off. We left soon after. Pretty uneventful really.

We headed back along the Bosphorus strait into the Golden Horn to Eminonu coming once more around the Golden Horn and the striking Sultanahmet peninsula. In 1453 Sultan Mehmet II, known also as Sultan the Conqueror, led an army against the Byzantine Empire. Across the Golden Horn ran a chain - yes a chain -- yes in 1453 -- - that could be hauled up to prevent naval attacks on the capital. Mehmet, the sneaky little sod, had his army carry there ships on rollers across from the Bosphorus into the Golden Horn. They sacked the city. The current Byzantine King, also somewhat fittingly named Constantine, fell on the city walls his great ancestor had built, and thus fell the Byzantine Empire. The Muslims converted Sancta Sophia into the great mosque, Aya Sofia. Remember Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice? His grave was in Sofia Sancta. His bones were dug up and given to dogs; the human heart a fiery gorge indeed. Mehmet was 21 at the time - Imagine doing all that before being able to drink and have sex legally in some states in the US?

We landed in Istanbul harbour, had a Nargele and then headed back to the hostel. We decided on an early night: Tomorrow we are getting the Catamaran to Bandirma and then on to Canakkale - and to Troy and Gallipoli. I am looking forward, greatly, to not sleeping in a shared dorm with people farting the frog chorus every night!