The Day I Met a Turkish Pop Star

The past few days in Istanbul have been really fun. On Sunday, it rained all day, so I actually did not leave the hostel but instead slept in and spent the day playing various games with some Australians who are also here. (Note: two of these Australians are actually from Norfolk Island, a small self-governed island about 2000 miles off the coast of Australia with a population of just under 2,000 people!!) I refreshed my memory of how to play Hearts, learned how to play backgammon, and also learned some new fun card games: Yannif, and Five Hundred. I was quite good at Yannif and quite poor at Five Hundred. We did have to leave the hostel occasionally, but only to run across the street to the mini-mart to get snacks. It was a good day.

Yesterday, I did some standard Istanbul tourism: went to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, as well as the Basilica Cistern. Unfortunately, I brought my camera but forgot my memory card, so enjoy the pictures taken by professionals that I have linked to. The cistern was incredibly cool - an underground pool, complete with fish, to wander about on raised walkways. I realized that I am getting a bit travel weary when I went to the Grand Bazaar, took one look at the shops spilling into the street, thought, "Meh, I'm tired," and went home for the day. I guess these days what I need is a bizarre bazaar. (Jenni, I'm sorry you had to read that pun twice but I can't help myself.)

Today, I joined up with the Australians to take a trip out of town. We hopped on the Bosphorus Ferry and traveled up from Istanbul to the Black Sea. For anyone who needs a geography refresher, Istanbul is located between the Sea of Marmara (which eventually connects to the Mediterranean) and the Black Sea. The Bosphorus is a naturally occurring channel which connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, and is also a dividing line between Europe and Asia. The Bosphorus is one of the narrowest and shallowest bodies of water used for international shipping!

Here is a view of Istanbul from while we were waiting to board the ferry:

This is the Galata Bridge. All those guys standing on the bridge fishing are catching fish which will be served tonight in the restaurants underneath them. (In case you can't tell from the picture, nearly every person standing on the bridge has a big fishing pole.) In the mornings, they catch strings of small fish which they keep alive in buckets of water, and then use as bait to catch bigger fish in the afternoons. Not really an ideal day for the small fish.

The ferry ride took us North along the Bosphorus, stopping at a few places along the way. Most stops looked pretty much like this, with nice looking houses lining the water front:

When we reached our final destination, a small port town at the entrance to the Black Sea, we had three hours before we had to take the ferry back. We could see the ruins of a castle as we approached on the ferry, and found this map directing us where to go:

Basically, we just had to walk uphill. Mom and Trevor will remember a similar experience in Florence - each part seemed steep until we saw the NEXT portion of the journey.

Up, up, up we climbed, until we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the Black Sea. I was a little disappointed because it's actually just blue.

We reached the castle, only to find a sign announcing that the inside of the castle was closed for archeological work. This is the outside/top of the castle. You can still see Istanbul's skyline in the distance.

However, on the other side of the castle, we discovered some sort of production happening!!

That man in black is the director of a Turkish music video that they were filming!

Once the dancers were ready, the singer himself came out:

He sang through his song a few times while the camera zoomed around with some sweeping panoramas of the sea and the singer. He was very much into making expressive hand gestures. He also changed shirts and backgrounds a couple times so they could get a variety of shots. At one point, he came around and said hello to the small crowd of random tourists (including me!) who had come to see the castle and were now milling about, watching the video taping. Maybe some of them were diehard fans of his but mostly it seemed to be people who were on the ferry with us.

After watching the music video magic for a while, we began the descent back down to the port.

I cannot think of WHAT type of food would be translated as "pie of cigaratte". (Look right above the word DRINKS). Let's not eat here.

Here are some of the houses overlooking the water:

The town is also populated by very friendly stray dogs. We got some kebabs from a shop and sat on a bench to eat them, and immediately had dining companions waiting for something to fall. Please note the pleading eyes on the brown and white one closest to the camera. He's been practicing that stare for a while!

We boarded the ferry to come home, and arrived back in Istanbul just as the sun went down. We took the tram back to the area that our hostel is in. We walked past the Blue Mosque on our way home, which was lit up for the night:

(Picnicking couple under siege by stray cat who has leapt into their food supply.)

Not sure what tomorrow will bring! I had planned to explore Turkey a bit but it's HUGE and going to any other city requires a minimum of 9-10 hours on bus or train and I just can't seem to get myself in gear to do that. I'll probably be here in Istanbul for a few more days before heading to Asia. If I don't write in the blog, it's because I'm just sitting around playing cards. :)