before i went on my trip, i painted a bunch of pages in a new moleskine journal. then each day i’d collect my tickets stubs, receipts and various little treasures and stick them into my travel journal and write about what i did that day. i really enjoyed this process of travel journaling. it helped me to absorb the many amazing experiences i was having.
now that i am back, it also helps me to remember the details of my trip more clearly. i am sharing those journal pages here, along with some of my photographs and stories of my adventures. you can find adventure diary day one here and adventure diary day two here.
this is my day three page from my travel journal: bosphorus cruise, spice market and my ticket stub from the mevlana seva ceremony (sufi whirling dirvishes).on the third day we decided to go for a seven hour bosphorus cruise. the bosphorus straight runs through istanbul, separating the european and asian continents. after another amazing breakfast at the hotel, we started our walk down to the harbour, not entirely sure about how we were going to get there, so we gave ourselves lots of time to get down there.
along the way to the harbour
i discovered that “vitamin shops” sell fresh squeezed fruit juices.
vitamin and fast food
when we got to the harbour, but had no clue which boat to get on and walked up and down for a little while. it was frustrating to not be able to read the signs to figure out which boat we wanted. there are many ferries and boats in istanbul, so the harbour was bustling and confusing.
at the harbour
at the harbour
bridge full of fishermen
but as the departure time got closer, buses full of tourists started arriving at the harbour, and we followed them to the right boat. it was well worth the frustration of locating the right boat – the shoreline, on both sides, was completely amazing.
bosphorus shore
bosphorus shore
bosphorus buoy
bosphorus shore
when i took this photo of castle ruins, i had no idea that i would soon be walking up the mountain to get a closer look.
cliff top castle ruins
we docked in what felt like a small village, but was probably a suburb of istanbul, on the asian side. all around the dock were nice looking restaurants with men outside them yelling out their menus at us. as vegetarians, it doesn’t feel that good to have men yelling “steak!!!” “fish sandwhich” or whatever as we walked by, so we ventured a little further into the village and found this tiny, simple little restaurant where the woman nodded when we said we were vegetarian. she made an incredible tasting lunch in this simple little shack in the front of the restaurant:
restaurant
i had lentil soup, rice and tea.
my lunch
after lunch we wandered further into the village.
the village below the castle
once we walked away from the dock, the roads became very narrow – too narrow for cars. and then the roads turned into these narrow windy stairs going all over the place.
village
it was like walking around in a whole other world, but we didn’t venture too far in as it felt like it would be really easy to get lost here.
village
so we began to make our way up to the castle. about halfway up, there was a graveyard and i really wanted to go into.
graveyard
this was one of my favourite places to be, in the whole world. complete and absolute peace came over me, and i wanted to stand there forever. it made me think i had a really happy and lovely past life in turkey, and a part of me is resting in eternal peace right here. but my friend that i was traveling with didn’t have the same feeling and wanted to keep going to the castle and so we did. here he is at the entrance to the castle ruins.
entrance to the castle ruins
the view from the castle
and we got back on the boat and had a lovely cruise back to downtown. it was really amazing how far the suburbs stretched, with miles and miles and miles of mansions lining the bosphorus.
bosphorus coast
back at the harbour, this boat really caught my attention:
fish boat
the boat was rocking and huge puffs of smoke would come out of it. they were cooking up and selling fresh fish and there was a huge crowd around it.
then we took a quick walk through the spice market, which is similar to the grand bazaar but much smaller and mostly spices, teas, coffees, sweets, etc. we were too tired to really enjoy it, and decided to come back another day. that night we saw the sufi whilring dirvishes perform in an old hammam and then stopped at a turkish delight cafe afterwards.
piles and piles of fresh delicious turkish delight
yum!
andrea schroeder creates creativity workshops, downloadable creativity kits, art and guided meditations to support you in knowing and remembering that you are a creative being and you can create anything.
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Loved this diary post