Running after a Boat on two Continents

When I was a younger, I used to travel quite a lot. Over the last 20 years, the main destination for my travels was Turkey and more precisely Istanbul. The reason is that the person I married 20 years ago comes from there. I just came back from another trip to the city at the Bosphorus and it was quite memorable...

When we go to Istanbul, we tend to visit friends and family but we also try to enjoy the beauties of the city and we do some shopping profiting from the exchange rates that are good for us at the moment. This time around, my wife's sister was invited by her school to a boat trip on the Bosphorus. She was allowed to take some family members with her and she asked us whether we would be interested to join her and her husband on the trip. It's not everyday that you have the chance to do such a trip and we gladly accepted.

Since it is Ramadan, the month of fasting, in the Muslim world, we would take the evening meal (iftar) on the ship and watch some Sufi dancing, while navigating across the Bosphorus straight that splits Istanbul in it's European and it's Asian part. It sounded like a great plan.

Even in Turkey being late can be a problem

In Switzerland, the country of watches, being late is a kind of taboo. When we have an appointment, we tend to be early. It take a lot of effort for me to deal with other countries and cultures, like Turkey, where the concept of punctuality is perceived slightly differently.

On the day of the trip, we stayed with my wife's parents since my sister in law and her husband were working. They were supposed to pick us up and together we would take the tramway to the port in Karaköy. From there we would take the ship that would leave at 18h30. On that day, my sister in law managed to forget her phone at home and she couldn't inform us that they were running late. So we were quite surprised when they reached our home at 18h00. From the house till the port it's only about 5 km... but 5 km in Istanbul is not like 5 km in any other place in the world. Istanbul is very, very busy with close to 15 million inhabitants. Making 5 km with the tramway in Istanbul in less than 30 minutes is kind of an illusion. We were running late and we knew it. So we hurried to the tramway stop and managed to jump into the next wagon. My brother in law called to try to make the boat wait. We realised later how futile this was because there were close to 500 people on the boat and they wouldn't wait for 4. We tried it all the same but at 18h30 we were still in the tramway close to the big bazar (a very touristic place) which is only about half distance to the destination.

We tried to call ahead and they told us the ship hadn't arrived yet, so we were still optimistic. When we reached the stop, we jumped out of the tramway and we run towards the port. My sister in law managed quite well with her high heels. We arrived at the port and we saw the ship with a big relief. We went on board and the guy who was dealing with the passengers looked at us strangely. It was actually not our boat and ours had left one minute before...

source: google.maps

This was of course a big disappointment but then my brother in law called the people on the boat and they told us that the boat would make a stop in Üsküdar. This is however on the opposite side of the Bosphorus, on the Asian side. They told us that there were ferries that made the crossing and that they are probably faster than our boat. We thought about it 30 seconds and decided to give it a try. We had to run again towards the port for the ferries. Once we arrived, we learned that the next boat for Üsküdar would leave in 10 minutes. Again we hesitated but decided to try it. The ferry seemed to know that we were in a hurry. It was navigating at maximum speed to make the crossing. Once we arrived, we called the friends on the boat and they said that they haven't arrived yet.

We found the place but where was the boat?

There was however a slight problem. We knew that the boat would go to Üsküdar but it's quite a big piece of town and we had no idea where it would dock. Again we started to run around without knowing exactly where we should go. My brother in law asked around and we finally thought that we knew where it would dock.

There were plenty of people waiting and finally we saw the ship coming in. When it docked, the next funny part was to get on board. Because everybody wanted to go on board at the same time. However, the stairs to the ship could take only so many. Finally a crew member had to shout his lungs out to make everybody take a couple of steps back so that the stair elevator could actually be put in place. It was fun but also a bit scary. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody landed in the water in the process.

Just in time for the meal

We were on board and it was still not 19h43 which was the time for iftar. But we couldn't find our friends. There were 3 decks packed with tables and people. Finally, we found them and we even found some chairs to sit. Two minutes later, the eating began. With so many people it wasn't surprising that the food was a bit cold but it wasn't bad. While eating the ship cruised along the Bosphorus and we could see the city in the setting sun from the water. After eating we went to the top deck to take some pictures and watch the sight. It was beautiful and still quite warm. Since my sister in law didn't have her phone with her, she took mine to take pictures. I was praying that my phone wouldn't end up in the water...

Passing under the bridge linking Europe to Asia, taken from the top deck of the Ship

The trip lasted about two hours and we got off in Karaköy. We decided to take a walk and climbed up to the Galata tower where we stopped at a beautiful coffee.

It was a very memorable evening that I won't forget easily.

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