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I’m on a boat

Today has been a very exciting day in Turkey. After doing a two-a-day yesterday in training we had the morning off to go see the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus is a strait that runs between Europe and Asia. We traveled their via bus and purchased tickets for a boat ride that lasted roughly 45 minutes. We were treated to some wonderful views.  It was very nice to be in the nice cool air as opposed to the crowded city. While on the boat many of us tried a some hot cider that comes in small intricate glasses. I have seen many of the street vendors drinking from these same glasses and have been curious as to what they were consuming. The cider was similar to hot apple cider, but maybe just a bit more sweet and sugary. They also brought out some wafer like snacks that tasted very similar to vanilla wafers.

After we were done with the boat trip we had around an hour of free time to explore the surrounding area. There were a lot fisherman on the bridge across the strait who didn't particularly like getting there picture taken.  They had a number of hooks on there line at once.  It appeared that they were bringing 6-7 fish in at the same time.  Someone suggested that they were herring.  There was also a tunnel that ran beneath the street that connected the pier with a sort of square/market. The tunnel was jam packed with people and merchants who were selling every sort of trinket you can imagine. I spent lot of time in the market. They were selling many different kinds of food including lamb, coffee, nuts, fruits, cheese, and fish. There were very open with giving us free samples of everything. It was a much more relaxed environment than the markets near our hotel which practically force the fake cologne/jeans/sunglasses/shirts into your bags. Don't get me wrong they were still active in trying to sell us their fair but they did so in a much more charming method. We were also on our own for lunch. Off the pier they were selling some fish sandwichs. They came with onions and lettuce and we had a bottle of lime juice and salt at our mini table to garnish them with.

We had a bit of a long ride on the bus back to our hotel. It was a bit more intense in the traffic, but we have complete faith in our bus driver. He got us back safely through some very sketchy traffic. There was only a short amount of down time before the guys had to go back an train with the Turkish National Team. I elected to skip out on this training and instead Gabe Re and I head to a site called the Basilica Cistern. It was about a mile hike both ways but was completely worth the trip. We walked down a couple flights of stairs and were treated to a wonderful views of the ancient site.  There were small fish swimming around in the shallow water.

On our trip back from the Cistern we strolled through a flea market. Everyone just layed down a rug/newspaper with all sorts of trinkets, knives, necklaces, shoes, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. Gabe saw a camera that caught his eye, but after some negiotiating that involved exchanging prices back and forth on an iphone display, they could not come to an agreement on the price.

After the flea market we headed back to the hotel and have now met up with the rest of the team. I am not for sure what is on tap for tonight, but I will make sure to take some pictures and keep you up to date with the blog posts. 

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