I was also thinking about how the medicine that Athena had been so kind to find at a pharmacy, with help from an English-speaking hotel clerk, was not doing much good for my tummy troubles. I was doing okay, but felt like I had a low-grade fever and I definitely had some lower-GI issues that caused me to wonder if there were enough bathrooms close enough to where I needed them! And I find that I'm willing--more than willing--to pay the 1 Turkish Lira to use a pay toilet. They truly are cleaner and usually one can find a western-style toilet to use. But the best one was in our hotel room.
We had kind of a "light" day since we'd accomplished most of our desired "List of things to see and do." We took it easy in the morning. I tried taking immodium, but thought it must have been too old to be effective because it didn't really stop things. But it was manageable. After we had breakfast, we headed down to the shore area near the fish sandwich boats across the Galata bridge. We wanted to take a little Bosphorus cruise up to the second bridge over the strait. We found the boat dock place our Saturday night guide had told us about. We got there right when the boat was ready to depart, so we quickly paid our 15 TL and hopped on board the passenger ferry-type boat. There was a lot of noisy narration at the first. In spanish, of all things. We stopped to pick up other passengers. The weather was lovely. We cruised past a lovely palace right along the shorefront on the European side. We saw big fortress-type castle structures, but have no idea what they were or who buildt them. There were large manor houses, hotels, and then there were some really trashy areas, too, that looked like demolished houses or restaurants. And all the junk was still just laying there on the pier. It was rather strange. There's some construction going on near the shore, too, on the metro line or something. Lots of pilons being pounded down...(I like watching construction) We saw lots of other tour boats, lots of ferrys and big freighters.
Most of the Galata Bridge is very low to the water with the restaurants and shops on bottom with roadway and fishermen on the top. There is just one span in the center where boats can go ito the Golden Horn water way past the bridge, and it is through this passage.
Looking up the strait as we headed away from the docks.
I think this is lookng across at the Asia side of Istanbul
Castle/Fortress was on both sides of the strait. "The castles were built by the Ottomans which is how they captured the city of Constantinople, now called Istanbul." Mickey Bauer.
Large Hotel or manor or palace or something on the Asia side. I really should go look those up. But they were pretty , so I snapped a photo. :-)
The palace whose name escapes me. I will have to edit this later when I have my guide book handy.
Dolmbahce Palace
Approaching one of the towers on the bridge. There is no way to cross the bridge on the lower level. You have to climb the stairs up to the top, walk across the top part of the bridge, then go back down on the other side through the tower of stairs over there. It was almost too much. "More stairs??!" Ugh.
Blue Mosque in distance.
If you zoom in you can see them grilling the mackarel on the boats.
There were so many vendors with carts of roasted corn and chestnuts.
I thought the corn looked like field corn, not sweet corn. Not appealing to me at all. Lots of people seemed to be buying, though. The chestnuts were popular, too.
There were carts of these pastries, too. They were circles of dough. Never bought any, so I don't know if it was just plain bread or a sweeter dough. It usually had seeds on them, too, so I'm guessing it was more savory than sweet. "The round 'pastries' you noticed being sold and eaten everywhere are simits, a type of bagel made with grape syrup and covered with sesame seeds. We like them and the wonderful roasted chestnuts. Our granddaughter (Trecia's oldest) absolutely LOVED them and she and I made little pigs of ourselves one day waiting for the others to view the Hagia Sofia museum." Mickey Bauer.
Stopped for some soup for lunch one day. My poor attempt at a selfie.
And resting. Having to be on the lookout for bathrooms all the time was trying!
For some reason, the photos I took of the Grand Bazaar didn't end up in a file I can find here on my tablet. I only took two photos. It was HILLY inside the Bazaar! I just cannot avoid them anywhere. We hiked up a hill to find the Grand Bazaar, hiked further into it, sill going up hill, but once inside you could turn and go down hill. Or up hill. Small alley-ways you could barely squeeze through between the merchandise. Wider avenues. All with lots and lots of shops selling all kinds of merchandise. And all were vying for your money and time. Walking, looking, shopping. Not my thing. I was only looking for some Turkish Delight. I found it. I found a bathroom. And we went back to the hotel. I think we just snacked on stuff in our room and didn't go out that night. Or maybe Athena did, to find some soup to share. But I was beat and just needed to get some rest. So I did. Our bed was very comfortable. I really liked our room.
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