Bosphorus

Sounds like a demeaning adjective, doesn't it?! Haha.

Anyway, on Saturday we took a boat trip down the Bosphorus River. And it was...wow. Seriously, this has to be one of coolest cities I've ever been to, if not THE coolest...and I've been to a few cities, haha. I mean, about halfway through the trip the sun was setting, and...wow. Seeing mosques with their towers on top of hills silhouetted by the setting sun with the faint sound of the call to prayer echoing from somewhere onshore you can't quite seem to find...I mean, come on! So yeah, it was kind of a really cool trip.

Soo we started out around late afternoon which worked out pretty nice, cuz it was pretty hot then but it cooled down pretty quickly. And we had pizza.
But anyway, it was so incredible cuz the Bosphorus splits the two sides of Istanbul (the European side from the Asian side), so on the boat you'd look to the left and see Asia, then look to the right and see Europe. And of course the sun just so happened to be glistening off the water perfectly. And since tomorrow's a Turkish holiday, tons of buildings had Turkish flags hanging from them. Huuuge flags. And since the city is soo hilly (seriousy, it's soo amazingly hilly it's not even funny), looking at the city from the river and seeing all the buildings going up the hill with huge Turkish flags hanging from so many of them...it's pretty awesome. And if you looked out far enough, you could see hills in the distance covered ever so slightly in fog. All you could see was vague outlines of buildings, and red. :)

So basically it was an afternoon of that...haha, not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Then the sun started to set... ;)

And like I said before, seeing mosque domes and towers, and old castle walls silhouetted by the setting sun...wow. And sure, it may or may not have been even more amazing with the Prince of Persia soundtrack on my iPod :P. And of course it just so happens, that I Just couldn't quite get a picture that looked anywhere near as amazing as it did in person. (Dear photographer friends, come visit. Seriously, you'll love it here). So by this time I was actually getting kinda sick, haha, but I didn't mind at all, it was entirely worth it.

And then the sun set, but it was still relatively light out... ;)

And by now, I was reallly sick, haha. So I went and sat on the front of the boat...and that was a lot of fun. Yeah. And that really helped me feel better so I could enjoy the ride soo much more. And there was a lot more to enjoy so that was good! Haha.
...
...
Oh! I just remebered what I was trying to remember about what happened next! Now I do. So!
I was looking out in front of me, but something caught my eye to my right...and it wasn't another boat.
...there was about 7 dolphins swimming right alongside the boat, no more than twenty feet away! It was awesome! I have to admit, I'd never actually seen a real dolphin before. I mean, I probably have at an aquarium sometime when I was four or something, but that doesn't count, haha. So...yeah, it was pretty much amazing. They were right there! I'm still freaking out about it.

And then it started getting dark... ;)

I thought the old buildings and huge bridges looked cool in the daylight...until I saw them at night.
There were lights all around this old castle we passed, and it looked...I don't even really know how to describe it. It was beautiful. And one of the bridges connecting the continents had, almost like Christmas lights, all across it, and they would eventually change color, and yeah, it was kinda cool. So yeah, between the skyscrapers behind the beautiful homes on the shoreline all next to the old mosques and castles, all lit up with every kind of light there is, connected by two Huge bridges...it was pretty impressive. I think that's a good way to describe it, haha.

So yeah, that was my Saturday evening :P

Christian