8 February

Yes, we probably are adventurous.

The Bosphorus is the first link between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Further down stream is the Dardanelles, famous seaways in both war and peace.

Apparently, quaint fishing villages line the Bosphorus.

Apparently?

We took a ferry from central Istanbul up the Bosphorus in our quest to find the old Turkey. For mile after mile along the Bosphorus, all we could see were multi-storey modern residential blocks and multi-million dollar houses. The seafront on both the Asian and European side comprised walkways and parkland , dotted with children's playgrounds. Very Sydney North Shore! But we plodded on to the 'quaint' fishing 'village' of Sariyer. Our plan was to walk around the village, check out some of the old wooden Ottoman houses, have a 'quaint village' lunch and catch the local bus back for the 20 km trip back to Istanbul.

On the ferry, me met an Australian couple about our age who were a bit stunned at the way we had been, and were, travelling. They thought our plan for the day was fairly adventurous. What - catch a local bus? We don't think much about how we get about these days. We get lost. We get confused, but we have some fantastic experiences on the way and we always find our way home.

Adventurous? Maybe, but it's the way we like to travel – not too down and dirty, but making contact with the locals on some level.

As to the quaint fishing village? It was a bit of a disappointment. After some searching in the back streets, we did find some old wooden houses of Ottoman vintage, but on the whole the 'quaint village' had turned into a modern outer suburban shopping strip with the added attraction of a flash fishing quay and some nice seafood restaurants.

The bus trip back to town took the best part of two hours along the shores of the Bosphorus, past million dollar yachts and hundreds of fishermen trying their luck with long rods off the neatly-paved and well-manicured shores of outer suburban Istanbul.

But was it adventurous? Once it might have been, but today it was just another suburban bus ride through some very well-heeled areas of this enormous city. Never mind, we have found some old parts of the central city that we will revisit over the next few days.