Beach Party

Beautiful description of sailing on the Bosphorus.

And then we headed back to the water to board a boat for a nighttime tour of the Bosphorus. The boat had two levels, an open upper deck and a covered lower deck with tables and a kebap grill (not that any of us were hungry!). We sat on the upper deck, took a lot of pictures, chatted and laughed and got to know each other, and saw the sights of the Bosphorus. I think Kemal belonged to an organization which had chartered the cruise, because he seemed to know everyone - many people were more distant relatives - and some announcements were made which I didn’t understand. The Bosphorus by night - lights sparkling on either shore - we passed fancy clubs with flashing pinks and blues, mosques and palaces lit from below, old waterfront homes called yalıs, the grand bridges linking the two sides of the city… the wind picked up and blew our hair around our faces, and Kemal’s wife wrapped me in an extra sweater she’d brought. We went inside for a while to get away from the cold, but soon headed back outside to see more of the magical world passing by… It occurred to me again just how many things there are to see in this city. And people have been sailing this very route for hundreds - thousands - of years.

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