And our plates full of food. The yogurt was so delicious!
The room where we ate breakfast was on the top floor of the building, allowing for spectacular views:
We particularly enjoyed watching the interaction among the seagulls!Back in our room, Brian double-checked details of our day:
We were going on a Bosphorus cruise, so we headed out towards the Bosphorus Strait, which is the connector between the Sea of Marmara and The Black Sea.We got there a bit early, so we waited at the harbor, enjoying the views and walking around a bit:
On this bridge, you can see people fishing on top and restaurants underneath:
Off to the left in this picture, you can see a giant cruise ship that is docked. Pretty much every day, a different large cruise ship was docked there. I can't even imagine trying to cram all of Istanbul into one day -- a week was even too short!
This is the boat that would take us almost to the Black Sea and back (not exactly environmentally friendly!):
Some views from the ship:
This large building is the Istanbul Modern Art Museum, which we would visit later in our trip:
Though we didn't get any of them on camera, as we were setting off, we saw dolphins jumping out of the water! We pointed them out to the Australians sitting near us, but they weren't too impressed as it's a frequent occurrence in their homeland. 
Juxtaposition of new and old, a common theme here:
Also, of rich:
And poor:
A far view of the Black Sea:
Hard to believe that so many battles have taken place in an area that was so peaceful the day of our visit.
This castle on top of the hill was our destination: 
As the ship was docking, competing restaurants tried to attract attention and draw lunchers:
A bit hard to see, but jellyfish! One of our guidebooks stated that very few people swim in the Bosphorus due to the prevalence of jellyfish and garbage.
So many seagulls!
So many cats!
As we only had a few hours at this stop, it was unlikely we'd have enough time to eat a sit down lunch and trek to the castle ruins on the hill. We stopped at a bakery and bought a picnic lunch to eat near the castle.
The trek up was very steep, but we made it!
Lunch with a view: 
I explored some of the abandoned parts of the castle. However, they were full of garbage and smelled bad, so I didn't spend much time there.
More incredible views:
A camoflagued butterfly:
This map gives an idea of the climb we made to get to the top:
We returned to sea level, and had some time until the boat departed. We stopped at a nearby restaurant for a beer and relaxation:
The boat returned us to Istanbul, and we headed to the Galata Tower. View from the top:
This ladder store's method of advertising its wares seemed possibly dangerous and certainly unlucky as the ladders blanketed the sidewalk: 
Crossing the bridge, back to our side of town:
In the setting sun, we saw the aquaduct in the background, reminding us once again of Istanbul's Roman past:
We stopped in a British pub for a quick drink (are we in Istanbul or London?):
A carpet salesman stopped us on our way to dinner and offered to take us back to his factory to show us how to buy a carpet. We declined! But, as we were talking to him, we saw one of the many stray cats jump into a nearby tree:
The birds aren't safe anywhere!
We ate dinner at Doy Doy, a restaurant near our hotel with a rooftop terrace and an amazing view of the Blue Mosque:
Light on vegetarian options, we had cheese pide, Turkish pizza:
After dinner, we returned to our hotel.
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