We were sitting in the bus at the first stop, and chatting about our plans for the day, when a lady walking toward us said something in Bosnian to us. I didn't recognize her, but she even knew my name, and mom knows her well. She used to live in the same building, staircase next to ours, before the war. Her son was just couple of years younger than my brother. They were in Sarajevo during the war, and helped my mom when she was moving. She was visiting her husband who now works in Iraq, and on her way back to Sarajevo she stopped for one day in Istanbul. She was staying in the same hotel as we did, and was traveling back on the same flight as we. What are the chances! One in twenty million. :)
While mom was busy reacquainting with the old friend, I started talking with the man sitting next to me and his friend, who were from Iraq. One of them lived in Sydney for nine years, and I was showing him my Australian hat and aboriginal pin. The other one was moving through his fingers the Muslim prayer beads, and I asked them what, if anything, are they saying when doing that. They explained they may say different things, like say to God "you are the almighty", or thank Him, or ask for protection. The beads were in Turkish style with blue see through glass and an eye looking decoration. I asked if they knew what that symbol meant, and he said it's like an eye that is looking and guarding you. Then the former Australian man took that rosary from his friend, who didn't speak much English, and gave it to me. He thought his friend is not really praying it because he also drinks, which Muslims are not supposed to. I told him that's may be exactly why he needs it, at which we all laughed. Our plan was to be in the bazaar 12-2, go over to the Asian side again and be on the beach 2.30-4, be back in the hotel by 5, leave for dinner at 6, so we can still pack our bags that evening as we were leaving in the morning. As often goes on a relaxing vacation with loose plans, we didn't make them. The bazaar, which has some 4000 shops, is a maze. All the little shops and stuff they sell outside look similar. We would find something and would want to come back, only to spend 10 more minutes walking in circles because we couldn't find our way back. I finally figured to start writing some sings down, so we can ask for direction back. We bought pretty much everything we wanted, all small things and souvenirs, and we bargained for all of them. They are usually simpatico toward Bosnia, so that helped to mentioned where we're from when negotiating the price. Some items we got for less than half price. Their usual selling phrase was, "It is $X, but just for You, it's $Y." - for everyone it's "just for you" :)
One hour behind our schedule already, we walked down the hill, through more of the street markets bustling with people, to spice bazaar again, to get natural salep. We realized that the one we bought the day before was an already prepared mix, and mom wanted the pure salep powder, which is better. (It's a type of creamy, milky, sweet yellow drink)
We could have spent another hour there, but we went onto the 20 min ferry boat over to Kadokuy again. The views from the boat of the old city were much better today, as there were virtually no clouds, and the air was really clear. We met couple of girls students on the boat, who told us at this time of day the trip to the beach town will take a bit longer because of the traffic. This time we knew which direction to go to once we got to the lend, and we quickly found a dolmush toward Djatebostan where I heard there are nice beaches on the Sea of Marmara. People here are generally very nice, even if they can't understand all we are saying. As we were asking people for the dolmush we needed, they were all very ready to help us. Then one dolmush driver offered to take us some 200 m where the particular van we needed is. That place had some 50 vehicles and when we started looking for the right one, a girl that was in that first dolmush called us to follower her as she was going in the same direction. The van to Djatebostan only had 2 more seats left, and she offered them to us and she was going to wait for the next one. Isn't that just nice!
It took us about 30 min to get there, and then maybe 10 min walk down to the small public beach. It was close to 5 already. The beach was OK; they had showers, changing cabins, an ice cream street shop, and umbrellas and chairs for rent. There were only maybe 10 people on the beach. The water in front of the beach, however, was not clean. They had a little bouie divider in the water for swimming, and stop the little boats from parking there, but there was stuff floating in the water, some sea weed, little breadcrumbs-like particles, and some trash like a plastic bag and watermelon skins. We walked in only up to our knees, and then fearing some skin disease went straight to the shower. We had a really good ice cream there, and after about an hour, and also because the sun was really strong, we started heading back. 
We asked for directions, two policemen and a couple standing next to them, and none of them knew English, except a 10 year old boy who was then translating some. Walking back toward where we were told, we found a great restaurant, in deep shade and very friendly waiters, and had a much needed Turkish coffee and water with ice! I think that was the first ice we saw while in Istanbul. :)The van on the main street came just as we arrived there. The dolmush vans stop and go wherever you tell them. A lady inside changed seats, without us saying anything, just so mom and I could sit together. Again we had trouble figuring out how much it cost, as the driver didn't understand English. That same lady then translated to us the exact amount. These people are just nice.
In the split of a moment on the main pier we decided to change boats and take the one that would take us on the other side of Eminonu, across the canal. We asked around for directions toward Taksim, until a journalist who speaks English offered us to follow him. He helped us buy the ticked for fornicular. It's is a type of tram going up and down the hill underground pulled by cables, the oldest type of transportation in Istanbul. My leg was really hurting and I didn't want to have to walk to the hotel. It turned out this tram was only going to the lower side of Taksim hill, so we still had another 15-20 min of my slow limping to our hotel. More than 3 hours later than our schedule, we were in the room. 
Our dinner plans included dinner in the sea-food restaurant on the water. An answer to an unspoken prayer came when we discovered a brochure in the lobby of a nice restaurant that offers a free shuttle service to the hotel guests. So, around 10.20 PM we were escorted to the restaurant under the bridge between Karakuy and Eminonu, an area full of restaurants. We had a great bass for dinner, by candle lights, local musicians, and water with awesome views of the old city. It was a great ending to our vacation. Not to break the tradition, we got to the room just after midnight, and just then started packing. Our airport ride was at 10 am tomorrow morning.
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