KYQ4: Istanbul - The Full Bosphorus and Reflections

Entering the Black Sea

Day 4

A six-hour sail along the Bosporus to the Black Sea was the intention. I left early and arrived at Eminonu with an hour to spare. I retraced my steps of yesterday evening into the Spice Market and found a large spice store and with no hesitation bought 4 large packets of spices and enough Turkish Delight to fill my rucksack. It would be useful for presents and as a substitute for wine if I ever get invited to dinner. It used up my Turkish lire that I should have spent on a visit to Topkapi Palace had I not objected to the discrimination of admission prices.

The large steamer for the Bosphorus cruise left at 10:30am with only 40 or 50 passengers. Unlike the previous days, the pure blue skies were absent, and a cool breeze meant I spent quite a bit of the time reading a book in the lounge before moving to the open deck once we sailed under the second bridge and I was in new territory. The continuously built-up suburbs of Istanbul were left behind and smaller settlements were nestled along the shore on both the Asian and European sides, most of them had a ferry terminal but today's cruise by-passed them until the final two before the entrance to the Black Sea under the Yanuz Sultan Seim, the third massive bridge that spans the Bosphorus. The cruise stopped at Anadolu Kavagh, an old fishing village, on the Asian side just before the third bridge.

There was a 2-hour stopover and I immediately set out for the Yoros Kalesi (castle)twin towers that loomed over the village. A twisting road and then a steep footpath led to the summit of the hill and the fortresses that overlooked the entrance to the Bosphorus. The views were impressive with a constant stream of tankers and other vessels passing under the bridge, there are 400 ships a day entering or leaving the Black Sea. The castle had been used by the Byzantines, Ottomans and Genoese as a base to control the entrance to the strait at its narrowest point as it enters the Black Sea. A dozen or so passengers from the cruise climbed to the summit before retiring to the village that had more fish restaurants than houses. They were totally dependent on the daily cruise visitors. I ordered a large salad and a beer as I whiled away the hour before the boat began the journey back. The winds had increased and the Bosphorus was choppy on the cruise back to Eminonu.

Despite the fairly easy day, I still suffered from sore feet and an unusual tiredness but I found the energy to take a fuller look at the Egyptian Bazaar and the New Mosque before exploring the streets leading back to Sultanahmet. I had a fascinating conversation with a young student from Indonesia as we both observed a long queue of older men receiving food parcels from a temporary building next to the mosque. He had flown to Istanbul at the start of a six-week holiday culminating in a visit to Mecca.

My appetite had not been great during the visit, I had been suffering with flu-like symptoms so I resisted an evening meal, deciding that a plate of Baklava and a coffee would be sufficient for my final night in Istanbul. As on most evenings, the hotel manager questioned me on where I had been. He spoke good English and had a fairly poor opinion of what was happening in Turkey. He thought the city was a mess with congestion, and poor upkeep of the buildings, roads and pavements. It imported too many goods which were then relabeled as Turkish. He was dismissive of Turkish farming, most fruit and vegetables were now imported. Istanbul in had attracted too many people seeking to make easy money from tourism and too many shops and restaurants competing for tourists. It was no surprise that the economy was in the doldrums.. Although this sounded a bit cynical from someone dependent on the tourist industry, it was articulated with a cogency that gave it traction. I resisted asking him about the political shenanigans that were evident in Istanbul where President Erdogan had become unpopular as the economy tanked and the secular mayor of Istanbul had become a serious candidate to become the main opposition leader at the next election.

The plane departing back to Edinburgh left at 2pm, but you need to be at the airport a couple of hours in advance. It takes almost 2 hours to get there. I caught a train from Kumkapi to Yenikapi, a Metro to Gayreteppe and then another Metro to the airport and arrived at 11:30am. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the airport worked as I passed through the flight desk, passport and baggage control. It was so much quicker and well-managed than Edinburgh or Heathrow. I had been critical of the immense size and grandeur of the airport on arrival but it seemed less of a problem on departure with well-functioning operations. It was not peak season and Turkish Airlines, the main operator, had set high standards. The gates were close to the large departure lounges which had good seating, numerous eateries and 'duty-free' outlets in the cavernous halls of the airport.

We arrived on time in Edinburgh but it took 25 minutes to get through passport control which was totally understaffed. My luggage had done several laps of the carousel and only after reporting it lost did I realise that I had failed to recognise it in the sea of black suitcases. As usual, the much-vaunted trams were running empty and the buses that ran to many destinations had healthy queues.

On the journey home I reflected that I had waited 50 years to get to Istanbul, which is now the most visited city in the world. It had quenched my curiosity and there were many aspects that I really enjoyed - a world heritage site, its mosques and history, the ferries on the Bosphorus, the variety of busy townships on both the Asian and European sides of the Bosphorus, the blue skies that greeted me on most days and the bustle of a truly international city. With a population of 15 million people, it would be the largest city in Europe, but half of it is in Asia. There again Turkey would be the largest country in Europe with 86 million people if it were not mainly in Asia. Turkey would like to be in the EU and who knows what will happen as the world tries to settle the future peace and security of Ukraine.