The Bosphorus and the Black Sea (March 29)

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Because everyone was doing things this weekend and Lessa and I felt as if we weren't included, we decided to take a cool, relaxing day trip to tour the Bosphorus and to see the Black Sea. It was a nice break away from studying statistics. We started by taking the bus and tram to get to Emununo. From there, we got on a passenger ferry that toured the entire Boshporus Strait. It was a nice cheap little getaway from the huge, sprawling city of Istanbul. This is my midwestern roots talking. Everyonce in a while, I need to get away from the city. I love Istanbul, but there is a part of me that cries out for open space. Thankfully, I got plenty of that on this trip.

From the Golden Horn Peninsula, we went North along the European side of the strait. We got a great view of Dolmabahçe Palace, and the suburbs along the waterfront. Me and Lessa were talking about how this was giving us a bunch of ideas of places in the city to visit. I now need to stop by the area next to Besikatas in order to see the glorious Jewelry market they have there.
We eventually got to see home as well. From the water, you could look up and get a view of the South Campus of Bogaziçi Univerisity. A little further on we got to see the Rumeli Hisari, the set of two Ottoman fortresses on both sides of the strait. They were built on the narrowest part in order to control the flow of naval trafic on the strait. However since the Ottomans later eventually dominated the entire strait and the seas surrounding it, its use was short lived. Now it serves as a glamorous outdoor theatre. Doing this little trip really did open our eyes to sheer size of Istanbul as an entire metropolitan area. The city is literrally massive in terms of area covered. New York City, Chicago, and other US cities are dwarfed in comparison. You also got to see how wealthy a city like Istanbul can be. We saw dozens of Mansions littering the sides of the European side, and hundreds of pieces of real estate that probably is estimated to be worth close a million per unit. We eventually came into view of the magnificent Black Sea. It was a great site to see. Our last stop before heading back down the Bosphorus was Anadolu Kavagi. This town is pleasent little place to wonder around to enjoy the country side and to enjoy a nice fish sandwich along with Turkish icecream (It was delicious by the way). I especially liked the 20 minute hike up the hill to Anadolu Kavagi Kalesi, a midieval Byzantine castle overlooking the choke point into the Black Sea. It was a nice place to visit. I climbed the walls up to the top part. However to get up to the last two towers standing, I needed rope because one slip up would equal pain. So I decided not to test the guardians and played it safe. I also just got to enjoy the fantastic view of the Black Sea. I now must venture forth to go see more of Northern Turkiye's costline. But that would be for after Spring Break. Overall it was a great little day trip.