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After 4 days of working to complete all the remaining paper work we now had time to go and do more touristy stuff. First off the ranks was the topkapi palace. This is where the Sultans used to live for many years before they started to prefer more European style palaces which got built further up the Bosphorus towards the black sea. The palace was a really welcome change after we had been “Palaced out” visiting many of the European Palaces over the last 6years.

The view from the Topkapi Palace of the Bosphorus

The difference was immediately visible with open beautiful gardens and nice tile work that really sets the place apart from its European rivals. The view out over the Bosphorus was fantastic. The palace gardens provided a really nice cool oasis in the 36c temperatures which was such a pleasant surprise. The extravagance of the palace was also superb not being too over the top like some other palaces we have seen.

Some of the extravagance of the Palace

After visiting the palace we decided to go and get some photos of the boats moored offshore in the sea of Marmara. We thought that the best time to get some images would be at night to really bring out the sheer number of boats. There must have been at least 300 boats all moored waiting to either go or come through the bosphorus. I personally have never seen so many huge ships in one place in my life. (Click the Picture below to expand the image).  While at the coast taking photos I was amazed to see so many families still having picnics etc in the cool of the evening despite it being 9:30-10pm at night. It was very busy.

Boats on the Sea of Marmaras waiting for the Bosphorus

The following day we decided that we would take a ferry tour of the Bosphorus and see the Asian side. It was interesting on the Ferry looking out to the City that has sprawled along the coast. It really reminded me of what it looks like in Sydney looking at the houses along the Harbour.

Icecream Istanbul Style

The only difference is there are no mosques that I know of in Sydney on the Harbour while they are one of the big features of the Istanbul skyline. The ferry trip took around 5hrs:30minutes as we had a 2hour stop at some tourist trap place which seems to only exist for the sake of an Army Base and a ruined castle / fort right near the entrance to the Black sea. It would be a very strong strategic point that’s for sure. On the way to the Ferry we found a shop which had an excellent range of plates that we found irresistible.

However we didn’t buy anything… until we walked past the same shop on the way back from the Ferry and had another look. The guy discounted the plates by about 50% so we caved in and got two plates.. which lead us to our next scenario… Unfortunately the local post company PTT in Turkey does not ship Ceramic goods unless they are in a wooden box… but they don’t sell wooden boxes and won’t tell you where you can get them from… fantastic.. That lead us to the situation where we didn’t have  a means to get the plates home that we had just purchased. Thankfully just near our apartment there was a UPS office who gave us a special discount on shipping the plates back to Australia… lets hope they get there in one piece..

Topkapi Palace Gardens

Mosque in istanbul

Now its onwards to Gallipoli….

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 6:27 am and is filed under Adventure Motorcycling, Bosphorus, Istanbul, London to Sydney, motorcycle touring, PTT, Sea of Marmaras, Turkey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.