Bosphorus Cruise

Last posting of Turkey photos as don’t want to bore everyone. We took a cruise down the Bosphorus. It was a great way to see all of the city and the amazing architecture. It was of course cold and overcast but at least it didn’t rain. The photos are a bit dark due to the gloomy weather but still neat. Also notice how red my face is from the cold in these photos!





You can see how they build more or less on top of each other and all the way up the hillside. Pretty amazing but not for everyone.




There are two suspension bridges that connect the European and Asian side of Turkey to each other. They are pretty amazing. The Asian side is where most of the population actually lives and has the high dollar homes.


Here are a few of the very expensive (multi million dollar) homes on the Asian side. Believe it or not several are wood – which is unusual in this region and this close to the water.



This was our hotel from the water with a palace in front of it. The palace was very neat.



The most expensive hotel in Istanbul - the Ciragan Palace. You could stay in the Sultan Suite for the bargain price of 27,000 EUR per night.

The Four Seasons where we had Thanksgiving dinner, it was once a women’s prison and has now been converted to an amazing five star hotel.


There were walls all around the city. These are left over from the Byzantine period.


Here we are enjoying the warmth of the cabin. It was just way too cold to stand outside; even venturing out to take photos was brutal.


Something must have looked interesting to me, this is a good shot of my new bracelet my mom and dad gave me (along with the rug and an awesome Kate Spade purse) for my 30th. Thanks mom and dad!

Towards the end of the tour we had not one but two near collusion experiences. The last one we were all bracing ourselves as I truly thought we were going to hit another boat – our driver had to try to reverse our boat to avoid. It was crazy!