Bosphorus Tour

My arse hurts! Hahah yeah, we have been walking so many miles that I have aches everywhere. I must say my mother is quite brave and fit! ☺ If you are thinking of taking a bosphorus tour don´t even think of skipping this parragraph! ☺

There are many boats going to the Bosphorus, but I strongly recommend you the public ferries. There are also private boats but they are small and move so much. Besides, they don´t take you until the end of the Bosphorus, so you don´t have the chance to see the Black Sea. I asked a taxi driver why was it called “Black� and he replied it was named liked that because of its colour (sounds obvious) and because it is a very dangerous see.

The ferry is next to Galata Bridge, but just be careful as tons of turkish will approach you offering other options. Do not stop ☺ or you will end up getting somewhere you don´t want. I took a photo of the booth you have to buy the tickets from. It is the very last one before getting to Galata Bridge. It is the public transportation turkish use to move from one place to another. The ticket costs 12.50€ and you can get off in any of the stops and get back on.

We folllowed Lonely Planet´s recommendation and I am glad we did it. We went straight to Anadolu Kavagi, which is the last top of the cruise. Once you get off the boat many people from all restaurants in town will come to you trying to make you eat in their place, quite annoying by the way. But being ready and in a good mood I recommend you to check the small streets for 10 minutes or so. Then get a taxi to visit the ruined castle on top of the hill. I guess that if you are planning to visit it in the summer it would be best to go walking (around 20min), but it was so cold that we decided to drive there. They charge you 5 YTL to go there and 5 more to go back. There you will find a beautiful terrace with the best views over Bosphorus. Even if you are not hungry, just have an apple tea and something light to eat. They reommended us some kind of cheese fingers, and they were very very tasty. If you go up the hill you will be able to see the Black Sea, which is quite impressive I must say.

Well, here comes the creative part of this cruise. Around 13h it was time for lunch so we decided to go to the best restaurant in Istanbul. It is called Körfez and it is located in Kanlica. To get there you have to options, you can either take the 15A bus, or you can get a taxi. I recommend you to take the latter one as it only cos tus 20YTL and it is a place very difficult to find. It will take you around 20 minutes or so. In the guide said it is almost under the Fatih Bridge, but it took us some time to find it. There are no signs to get to the restaurant, as it is on a private´s house water deck. The views were just superb and the food…. read my review! You fill even find photos of what we ate. We finished lunch around 3pm, so we came back walking to Kanlica to get the 3.50 ferry back to Sultanhamet.

We got to the hotel around 5pm so we rested for a couple of hours before going to one of the most lively and fun restaurants in the Beyoglu neighbourhood. I am writting a review about it. Highly recommendable.