KYQ4: Istanbul - The Full Bosphorus and Reflections

Entering the Black Sea

Day 4

A six-hour sail along the Bosphorus 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. 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 bypassed 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 for lunch. 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 had also climbed to the summit before retiring to the village with more fish restaurants than houses. The village had a Turkish army base but seemed 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 reasonably easy day, I was still suffering from sore feet and unusual tiredness. Nevertheless, 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 from 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 poor opinion of what was happening in Turkey. It imported too many goods, which were then relabelled as Turkish. He was dismissive of Turkish farming; most fruit and vegetables were now imported. Too many people had been attracted to Istanbul, seeking to make easy money from tourism and there were too many shops and restaurants competing for tourists The city had grown too big with resulting congestion, and poor upkeep of the buildings, roads and pavements. 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 brewing 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 a serious candidate to become President at the next election.

The plane departing back to Edinburgh the next day 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, 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, it would be the largest city in Europe, but half of it is in Asia. 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 Ukraine's future peace and security as Trump's America slips into isolation and loses the respect and trust of the free world.