So Saturday was the day i was most excited about during the Istanbul tour. Not because of the sites we had planned to see, but because it is Euro2008, and Turkey was taking on favorite Portugal with futbol’s best player at 9:40 local time, and the city was getting ready for the event. But more about that later – now on to the day’s events.

For Saturday the plan was to take a cruise up the Bosphorus for a few lazy hours then spend the afternoon on land at one of the small fishing villages for lunch. Of course, with the dearth of English it was near-impossible to figure out what boat we were looking for, where it departed from, timings, and all the other minutia required to actually take the Bosphorus cruise. We finally figured out that it leaves at 1:35 pm, so we got there in plenty of time for the 5 hour tour (with visions of Gilligan dancing in our head).

The Turkish coastline around the Bosphorus is beautiful. There is an Asian side and a European side (with the first bridge connecting “Europe to Asia” being the Bosphorus bridge opened in 1973). The ferry zigzags both sides of the river, stopping at various points along both sides, eventually docking for 2 hours at a fishing village (Anadolu Kavagi) where we had lunch and walked around. Day 3, and we have already had rain for 2 days. It started pouring during the cruise, but luckily it shut down over lunch so we could walk around afterwards. Lunch was surprisingly average – again. All the food here is the same – “shish” or gilled meats is option 1, and some sort of fish dishes are the second option. There is ubiquitous pizza, but really Turkish food is the only cuisine. I am definitely spoiled by the variety of cuisine available in the US, specifically NYC, but really – Turkish and nothing else? I couldn’t do it for more than a few days. I am already jonesing for some sushi. So – back to lunch. We got some mezzes and some fish. Woohoo. There wasn’t a ton to see in the village after lunch – so we stopped and ate delicious fresh made waffles. Definitely the culinary highlight so far – they make these waffles fresh, and then slather them with white chocolate, dark chocolate, nutella, and sprinkle some nuts all around. Roll it up like a taco and oink away. Nads and I shared one, but one bite in, it was a decision I instantly regretted. I could’ve eaten 2 by myself. Washed down with a little apple tea, and we were back on the boat headed back to our port. All in all – a very relaxing day – which was perfect to get fired up for “the big match!”