Bosphorus Tour

Bosphorus Tour. The name sounds exciting, right? Haha. It was not really a tour, they just brought us there, gave us time for ourselves wondering around the place without any official tour guide. Why? Because we used public transportation, not a private cruise. Haha. Must save the budget, right? It was raining quite heavily when we were in Istanbul. Alhamdulillah, Allah gave Cumulonimbus cloud a day off, so it was not pouring on the Christmas day, i.e 25th December 2011. Yeay!! Also, luckily that the ferry was still operating even on Christmas day; Istanbul is still practicing Islam more than Christianity after all.

Side view of The Domalbahce Palace a.k.a The Crystal Palace

We took off (eh, betul ke took off neh? selalu took off untuk flight, kan?) from the docking area with excitement. The faces were obviously bright with smiles and the hearts were beating with joy and happiness. Yes, it was another new day in Istanbul. First attraction that we saw was The Domalbahce Palace. From outside, the palace seems nothing. It looks like a floating box. The sense of royalty was only compounded inside, keeping all the luxuriousness to itself, just as its other name, The Crystal Palace.

Bosphorus Bridge

The Bosphorus Bridge, also called the First Bosphorus Bridge (Turkish: Boğaziçi Köprüsü or 1. Boğaziçi Köprüsü) is a bridge in Istanbul, Turkey spanning the Bosphorus strait (Turkish: Boğaziçi)The bridge is located between Ortaköy (European side) and Beylerbeyi (Asian side). It is a gravity anchored suspension bridge with steel pylons and inclined hangers. The aerodynamic deck is hanging on zigzag steel cables. It is 1,510 m long with a deck width of 39 m. The distance between the towers (main span) is 1,074 m (World rank: 13th) and their height over road level is 105 m. The clearance of the bridge from sea level is 64 m. It was the 4th longest suspension bridge in the world when completed in 1973, and the longest outside the United States of America.

Taken from : http://www.bosphorustour.com/Bosphorus-and-Asian-Shore-Cruise.html

Asian part of Istanbul

As we all know, Istanbul or Turkey itself is divided into two, i.e Asian and European part. And above is the Asian part of Istanbul. Is there anything between these two parts? Only the locals know. We did not have enough time to actually discover more at the Asian part, so from what I saw, they seemed to be similar. Maybe rooftop wise? Haha.

On the deck upon arrival *sebelum dihalau oleh authrority officer. LOL* @ Anadolu KavagI, a little fisherman town

Yeay, we arrived at Anadolu KavagI, a little fisherman town where Yoros Castle is located. This area is so small that everyone still knows each other. Only a few shops and restaurants open along the year, and most of them are selling touristic items such as souvenirs, snacks, and drinks. The place is quiet and there is a mosque that is still being used by local Muslims and Alhamdulillah we got to pray there before boarding.

Hafiz: Help me!!! They're squeezing me

In front of the great entrance of Yoros Castle

Capturing a group photo with black sea background

I heart you Istanbul

Screening the future

 

Lunch spot

Guess what we had for lunch? Boiled eggs and breads from hotel breakfast. Haha. It was the boys' idea to grab some food from the breakfast lounge for lunch. Did we feel hungry after that? I could not remember. Maybe we were just too excited for the day out that we forgot to fill in the stomach. Oh, by the way, there were a local drama or maybe a movie being shoot at that place. We could just see from far. Not that we were interested in them that we wanted to interfere the shooting, right?

Yoros Castle

And this one, is the only remaining Yoros Castle. Only a part of it is left for the new generation to see. The authority still preserves it by giving access to certain visitors to be in the castle compound at a time. I think it is about 15 minutes per visit. Though they put such time restriction, it was more than enough for us to take pictures and 'menggedik'. We knew nothing about the castle's history though, we just appreciated the scenery instead.

Black Sea