ISTANBUL

Thursday 2nd August
We left Zeytinbagi for a short hop to Katirli and then on to the Princes Islands but excellent winds took us North so we skipped our plans and went straight to Atakoy Marina in Istanbul. Neither of us had ever been in Istanbul, Intsomi had a couple of problems that needed fixing and we were expecting visitors so we booked into the Marina for a month. Highlights of Istanbul were the spice market, where leeches were also on sale, the grand bazaar, a trip up to a viewing station at the end of the Golden Horn, by ferry and cable car, and of course the amazing Aya Sofia, in use for a thousand years before St Pauls in London was built. We were pleased to have Lesley Parker, Pixi’s sister to join us in Istanbul.

ZEYTINBAGI

Monday 30th July
Delighted to leave Bandirma, we continued on the South coast of the Sea of Marmara to Zeytinbagi. It is a small fishing port with a minor tourist beach and some very quaint old wooden village houses. You are just as likely to meet a tractor as a car and it is the centre of olive growing in the area. Weatherbound once more we had a field day cleaning the boat. The locals were friendly and fishermen invited us to share their fresh sardine lunch the day after we arrived. We also did a major bike ride to the next big town called Mudanya where there was a plusher harbour and found a nice fish restaurant for lunch. We were pretty tired after ten kilometres of switchback dirt road so, after a good feed and some lemonades, we decided to take the bus back and packed the bikes into its boot.