The Golden Horn is an estuary which roughly divides the old from the new parts of European Istanbul. It’s sort of horn shaped and “golden” may refer to the riches which were traded in old Istanbul. Today, like yesterday, we crossed over the Galata Bridge to the peninsula of Old Istanbul, this time to go on a boat trip along the Bosphorus. Today, early on Sunday morning, the traffic was mercifully much lighter than yesterday, and in a short time we were guided onto our boat and set off down the historic waterway that connects the Mediterranean, via the Sea of Marmaris, with the Black Sea. How amazing to be travelling along that busy waterway, with fishing boats and trading boats and ferries all making their way along it and across it just as they have done for thousands of years. James bought me a hot chocolate and I sipped it as we travelled about 10 km along the Bosphorus and under several bridges. We travelled along the European side and after we turned, we travelled back along the Asian side. There wasn’t much difference between them, although there were more public buildings on the European side, and apparently goods and services cost about the same on both sides. The price of property used to be cheaper in Asia but that has evened up recently. We also learned that number of minarets shows the importance of the mosque, from local (one minaret) to very important (six minarets.) Our guide was quite open about her dislike of the divisive President Erdogan who has spent twenty years as Prime Minister and then President.
After our boat tour we strolled to the Spice Market which is much smaller than the Grand Bazaar and we couldn’t resist buying some “relaxing tea” which smells delicious, and some pistachio nuts for James. Our ship set sail back across the Sea of Marmaris at lunchtime.
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