Day 11 - Visiting Asia and celebrating New Year

Our plan for today was to take a ferry to the other side of Bosphorus where starts Asia. We find out that the ferries are the best way of getting around the city and it cost only 1.3 TY to go to Uskudar. Besides few mosques there were not any historical sights. Agnieszka told me that her guide book says that it was a very strategic part of the city and it was all destroyed during numerous wars. We walk toward the big bridge which connects Europe with Asia. There were many nice residential buildings and beautiful views. We sat at the Bosphorus which connects the Black see and the Marmara and watched the big ships to go from one sea to the other. Since it was the last day of 2006 Diana had a nice idea to write down our experiences and habits we did not want to bring it to the new year and through it to the water. It was a nice ritual.
We walked back to the harbor and looked for something to eat. Finally we found restaurant where we had tomato soup. The next boat was leaving in 30 min so we went to explore the local market. There were many strange looking sweets. After we tasted them we bought some. We took the ferry back but find out that it was going only to the other side and so we have decided to walk back. The streets were again very peaceful and clean. Our place was still few kilometers away so we took the very modern tram back. After a small feast in our mobile home we went out to celebrate the New Year. We walk down the main bridge. The streets were quite empty and there were mostly tourists. At midnight we opened our 1/2 l red wine and had our New Year toast. The city was again very peaceful, there were only a few fireworks at the Taxim. We crossed the bridge and went to see what is happening at Taksim. There were more local people walking down the main street. There were mainly young man. It was a very different experience of the New Year, no drunken people, now noisy and scary fireworks. Just peaceful walk. Since I came to Istanbul I felt that the people here are very friendly and peaceful and the whole city is very clean. Something I would not expect in the sixteen million metropolis. On the way home we stopped at the Jazz club which we discovered the night before. Close to our home met our friend Sunay in front of his restaurant. We went to bed at 3:30 am.