Bosphorus Cruise

These are pics of the Bosphorus Cruise. We signed up for free drinks, traditional turkish food, live music and of course belly dancing. We got there at 7:00, hungry because we wanted to make sure and enjoy the banquet to come. We were led into a boat, decked out fairly elegantly as a banquet hall with a small dance floor in the middle, and were told the service would begin at 7:30, but there wasn't a soul on the boat except for ourselves and the crew. For a half hour we sat salivating waiting for the feast and wondering exactly what we'd gotten ourselves into.
Finally, at the appointed hour a crush of people flowed in smiling and talking and obviously ready to party. Soon thereafter the music kicked in at about 90 decibels, and the people, without a moments hesitation, jumped up and started dancing and clapping their hands. And they seemed like they either danced all the time or they hadn't danced in years because they just kept shaking it.
By this time we were both famished and quite thirsty, and I eventually tracked down a waiter and the wine and drinks came.
The music reminded me of 'house music' from my college days, but with a middle eastern flare to it. There was even a light show with colored flashing lights and lasers and a smoke machine. All this as we cruised up and then back down the Boshporus river looking at the skyline of Istanbul and the amazing landmarks along the shore: The Ataturk Palace, the Mosque of such and such, and the bridge across the Bosphorus which bridges Europe and Asia (refer to your maps please). Two of my favorites are the 'Fortress of Europe' on the European side, and the 'Fortress of Asia' across the way, both built by Turkish forces in successive attempts to lay seige to the city, finally succeeding in taking it from the Byzantine christians in 1453. This is just one example of the inummerble bloody battles fought over control of this city, the Bosphorus and The Dardanelles to the southwest of here. Control of trade and transport between the Mediterranian and the Black Sea has apparently been pretty important going back to the mythical time of Troy (more on that later).

We eventually got served a pretty passable dinner (grilled chicken with turkish appetizers, roasted peppers and such).
I was beginning to wonder if we'd been duped about the belly dancing, when around 10:00 the singer stopped and gave a long sililoquy in what I thought was Turkish. Then she came out, Salome of the Seven Veils, a very talented dancer (see photo, finally). Did I mention that I'm all for belly dancing? As a physician, I think it is both aerobic and toning and it has the added benefit of raising the heart rate of those watching as well.
Near the end I had a conversation with a young couple, in broken english, over the 90 decibel house music, and I learned that nearly everyone on the boat was from Iran. The singer was singing in Farsi. They were all vacationing in Istanbul because you simply 'can't do this in Iran.'