Escape from Bakirkoy

We live in Bakirkoy - not the most upmarket part of Istanbul (but we like it).

Istanbul is seated on the Bosphorus, the waterway that links the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara.

The western side of Istanbul is in Europe, and the eastern side is in Asia.

We live, and work, on the European side, near where it says "Yesilkoy" on the map, right on the sea of Marmara. Our school also has a branch on the Asian side, near where it says "Uskudar" on the map. And there is a third branch on the European side - both of these are in more 'upmarket' areas.

Riding the Sea Bus

So in the (nearly) three weeks we have been here, I have been stuck in little old Bakirkoy. Not wanting to head off on my own, with Peter and I working opposite shifts, its been difficult to find a time to go anywhere.

Yesterday he had no morning class, and I had none until the evening, so we hopped on a "Sea Bus" and went across to the other side!

We just plain mis-read the timetable (which is in Turkish and English!) and arrived at the sea-bus station (only about a fifteen minute walk from our place) just in time to see the boat heading off, so we had a 40 minute wait. In peak hours the sea-bus leaves every few minutes, at quieter times its more than an hour between boats.

Soon our bus came steaming in - they are powerful fast-moving catamarans, very stable and comfortable.

We climbed aboard and grabbed a window seat upstairs. We noted with pride that the vessel had been built by good old Austal Ships in Western Australia.

And soon I was looking back at Bakirkoy for the first time in three weeks.

The trip across to Kadikoy took about twenty minutes, and there was only one patch where the boat rocked just slightly as we went through some ocean swell.

In Kadikoy we visited the office of our school, and enjoyed a meal in the roof-top cafeteria with Cem, one of the bosses.

Kadikoy is definitely more upmarket than our little Bakirkoy, as shown by this one main street, I haven't seen anything this wide in Bakirkoy.

But you don't have to stray far to find yourself pushing your way along a narrow, crowded alley again.