Our next day in Istanbul we joined a boat cruise / tour up the Bosporus strait. Our first site and stop was the "Maiden's Tower" also known in earlier periods as "Leander's Tower". Both names have their root in the same story: The ancient Greek myth of Hero and Leander.
Hero was a priestess of Aphrodite who lived in a tower. Leander, a young man on the other side of the strait, fell in love with her and would swim every night across the strait to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. One stormy winter night, the waves tossed Leander in the sea and the winds blew out Hero's light. Leander lost his way, and was drowned. Hero threw herself from the tower in grief and died as well.
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| Views from inside the Maiden's tower |
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| Views from the island of the Maiden's Tower |
Our next stop was in Ortakoy, a small district of Istanbul further up the Bosporus. We stopped at the Ortakoy Mosque which, though closed for renovations, was the Grand Imperial Mosque of Sultan Abdulmecid.
While there Chris had some traditional turkish coffee which is truly thick with grounds. It looks like and has the consistency of mud. Pinky's up!
Our next stop was the Beylerbeyi palace located on the Asian side of the Bosporus. This imperial Ottoman summer palace was built in the 1860's. Sadly, no pictures were allowed to be taken inside the palace, so its splendor (which is remarkable) will require you to visit yourself. We did manage to take a few pictures of the gardens outside.
Our final stop on the boat before heading back was the Rumeli Fortress (which ended up being immediately next to the restaurant we met Seda and Berkay at for dinner the previous day). Though the fort was closed for the day, we were able to get a few outstanding pictures from outside.
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