Day Out on the Bosphorus

A few weeks back Mel and went for a walk along the Bosphorus. (There are about 100 spellings for this waterway, don't pick on me!) The Bosphorus is cool because as you walk, you almost walk from village to village, the areas have their own little centers and squares where people are walking their dogs, taking their kids out to play or cuddling with their sweethearts. 

Here are a few pictures I took along the way. 

Above is an old Greek Church. Mel and I saw it peeking up through the surrounding buildings from far away and walked through the tiny, crowded and crooked streets to find it. 

Below is my favorite Istanbul street food - stuffed mussels or "midye dolmasi". These mussels are stuffed with a spicy rice mixture and eaten out of the shell with a squeeze of lemon. Some people give me a hard time for eating these because of the probability of getting ill from them, but I've never had a problem. (Touch wood). 

And an old man selling bone-dry breadsticks and croutons. The streets of  Istanbul are full of vendors selling everything you can imagine. They push big carts through the streets yelling out things like "Oranges, fresh and sweeeeet! 1 lira! 1 lira! 1 lira!!" Here in Sultanahmet there is a man selling chicken off a cart. He is known for yelling, "Seagulls! Freshly caught seagulls!" The locals love this.

And lastly, here is Mel stealthily stalking the old man for a picture! Naughty sister!