I was really grateful to be in Istanbul with a friend because we stayed with her cousin and the cousin's husband. They lived on the Asian side of Istanbul. A lot of tourists don't make it over to the other side of the bridge because most of the sights are on the European side of Istanbul. We ferried across after some sightseeing, then caught this insanely crazy mini-bus. They have these little van-like buses where you stand and they have a set route, but no set stops. It's really convenient, but you are constantly stopping as people flag it down and request stops to get off. They accelerate super intensely from stop to stop and weave in and out of traffic. I said a pre-death prayer or two. Thankfully we arrived safely in an insane frenetic mixture of people going every which way. There were some elections coming up so there were campaigners and people singing in groups in all of the public spaces.
This is the bridge that crosses the Bosporus: Europe on the left, Asia on the right. Incredible.
We ate brunch at this incredible restaurant on the Bosporus with a great view of the water and city. The spread of food options was phenomenal. They even had a huge chunk of honeycomb you could slice off with a wire.
