I Went to Asia for Lunch

A thousand and one sayings could have captured the last few days here in Turkey, but the level of excitement I've had to cross over the Bosphorus into my 5th continent, Asia, absolutely takes the cake. So much so that it's become a big running joke amongst the group. Well today my friends...my dream became a reality. I WENT TO ASIA! After a very eventful yet incredibly stressful and disappointing day yesterday, today more than made up for it.

Claire, Mary, Dana and I hired a driver to take us over to the Asia side of Turkey and up the coast of the Bosphorus to the mouth of the Black Sea. Because it sounds just so damn cool to say, I went to Asia for lunch. Lunch that was sitting just feet from the Bosphorus and consisted of Turbot fish that was brought off the ship earlier that morning. After lunch, we set off on foot up the steep hill to the castle in the town. The last few days I've walked probably 15 miles and biked a few more on top of that (all up hill) so today's hike left me in a little pain, but it was well, well worth it. The views as we approached the castle were comparable to some of the best I've ever seen around the world. And as we crested, we were treated to an amazing open view of the mout of the Black Sea. I can only hope the pictures (which were numerous) do it any justice at all. We all could not stop remarking on just how damn beautiful it was. I checked off a lot of boxes today...Asia, the Black Sea, fresh Turkish fish and a cruise on the Bosphorus - which came on the way back. Our journey back was a liesruely 90 minute boat trip on a ferry that was much improved over our transportation to the Princes' Islands yesterday.

Exhaustion would be an understatement to describe my state right now. I'm sitting in "net club", probably the largest internet cafe I've ever been to. It's hot as hell in here and there is Turkish music blaring. But all is right with the world...for I went to Asia.


(I leave you with a quick shot of a mosque in the sunset last night from the water)