river tour in Istanbul

I can't say I am a huge fan of organized tours. They do force me to do more tourist things that I would do on my own. Mostly becaue I don't get lost so much, or tempted by the evil drink. Today I booked a boat trip on a river called Bosphorus that sits between the European and Asian sections of Istanbul. There were about 40 people on the boat, essentially a coach load. It was small enough to roack up and dow, but I didn't feel too queezy. There were some nice palaces at the side of the river and one big fortrest that the Otmann built to seige to Constantinpole. I didn't realize that Jason and the Argonauts also went along one of these rivers when they went in search of the golden fleece. This made the trip more like history, rather than the Christian stuff lying around. I wish I had a sword so I could shake it at the monsters on the shore. The car driving here is a bit crazy. We took a tour bus to the river side. It was one the red buses that are used for city tours. At point a car cut into the side of the bus. There was the loud sound of scraping as the car and bus mingled. I thought this will take ages to sort out. Insurance numbers will have to be exchanged. The police will have to be called. A police car went past totally ignoring us. The driver and tour leader got out. A minute later they got back into bus and we were on our way. The tour leader said "there are lots of cars in Istanbul, but not many good drivers". Given the amount of cutting in and out, I am not surprised that they don't all obey hard core insurance rules.