We went to Asia today, no big deal. As I'm sure you know, Istanbul is the only city in the world situated on two continents, so Asia is about a 10-minute ferry ride from Kadir Has. Crossing the Bosporus by boat is an amazing experience. Once you get into the Bosporus itself, leaving the Golden Horn, the wind really hits you and you don't notice the sun beating down on you (which it does-I saw maybe ten clouds all day). There are all kinds of craft on the water, ranging from small fishing boats and tugboats to ferries to cruise ships to the massive freighters painted with words from all over the world. I've noticed a lot of Russian and Chinese ships, especially. When we got to Asia, we walked for about fifteen minutes along that bank, going south toward the Maiden's Tower. I forgot to take my camera because we left the dorm right after I got back from lunch, but if you haven't seen the Maiden's Tower just rent the Bond movie "The World is Not Enough" and watch the last twenty minutes or so. As far as I could tell, no supervillain was docking a stolen nuclear submarine under it today, but then again, how would I know? Part of what made Renard so hard for James Bond and his attractive scientist associate (played by Denise Richards) to catch was his ability to manipulate the governments without being detected. Thank God for Bond's incredible situational awareness.
Anyway, we went to a restaurant with a large terrace on top and ate there, overlooking the Maiden's Tower and the Bosporus, right where it meets the Golden Horn. You could see the tops of the roofs of Topkapi Palace and some of the minarets of the Hagia Sofia (I think) and, of course, the waters of the Bosporus. The Golden Horn, despite its name, is deep blue, almost green, but there is a distinct line, drawn surprisingly sharply, where it meets the Bosporus and the color changes. In the Bosporus itself the water is much lighter, a perfect shade of turquoise that I can't describe and that, unfortunately, would probably not show up well on film even if I ever remembered to bring my camera with me. Oddly enough, I was trying to think just yesterday of exactly what my favorite color was, and on the ferry today I realized that it was the exact shade of the Bosporus... woah. There were a million cool sights along the edge of both waterways, but I'll save a full account of those for when I actually remember to take pictures, because words can't do them justice.
Earlier in the day, Thomas, Allan, and I went for a run. It was the heat of the day, so it was the worst time to go running (it just seems right to me after running cross-country in high school), but there's never a bad time to run along the Golden Horn!* We saw the aforementioned beautiful sights and, what was cooler, scores of people hanging out on the parks and paths of the shore. There's a wide sidewalk right on the bank for most of the length of the Golden Horn, and it is oftentimes separated from the street by sizable patches of grass. All day long, these parks were covered with people. Kids were playing, men were fishing, and everyone seemed to be cooking something or heating up tea. It was a lively, happy sight, and it reminded me of the people we saw exactly a week ago on the banks of a river in the mountains of Romania, though on a much larger and more beautiful scale. I got to see this again much later in the day, when we were coming back from Asia. Professor Gilson, who went with us, said that we could either get off at the stop near Kadir Has or take it one stop further and have a nice, educational walk back past the Bulgarian church. Most of us stayed on the ferry, and I was only mildly disappointed when we learned that the next stop was closed. We continued up the Golden Horn, and I was only slightly more disappointed when we learned that the stop after that was also closed. We eventually go off just before a bridge where the water got significantly narrower, and the spot turned out to be very close to where we had had turned around on our run earlier in the day. Some people took cabs, but Thomas, Daniel, Feng, and I didn't want to pay for a ride when the weather was nice, we knew the way back, and we were within walking distance, so we decided to jog it. I gave up about five minutes in, remembering why they always tell you not to run in flip-flops, but Feng and I enjoyed a nice sunset walk back toward the dorms from there, and all was well that ended well.
Thanks again for reading! Happy Fathers' Day to my dad and any other dads reading this (I don't know if anyone actually reads this, but I enjoy writing it anyway)!
*Lots of mugging victims would probably contest that statement.
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