Istanbul ferry plying the Bosporus Strait; Çamlıca Transmission Tower in the background
You’ll see a lot in Istanbul if you just take one of the many tour boats traversing the Bosporus and the Golden Horn. The Bosporus (also spelled Bosphorus) is a strategic strait of vital importance. It separates not only the Mediterranean (via the Aegean and Marmara seas) from the Black Sea, but also Europe from Asia.
Bosporus and Golden Horn (Google Maps)
Ursula and I have done this voyage before, so we knew to shop around for the best price. As the boat gets closer to sailing, the fare tends to go down. Tour boats accumulate near the south end of the Galata Bridge, on both the east and west side of the bridge. We embarked on our boat east of the bridge, and disembarked to the west. As for the Galata, it also demarks a separation of sorts — the Golden Horn from the Bosporus. So, let’s head on out, shall we?
As you’ll see on this trip, the Blue Mosque is not the only six-minaret mosque in Istanbul. Here is the larger and much newer (completed in 2019) Çamlıca Mosque located high up on the slopes of Çamlıca Hill on the Asian side of the Bosporus:
Çamlıca Mosque
This next image captures both the Hagia Sophia (current building completed in 537; originally as a Greek Orthodox church) and the Blue Mosque (completed in 1609):
Hagia Sophia (left); Blue Mosque (right)
There is a lot of traffic on this narrow waterway as you can see in these images:
Ferry
Tug
Tour Boat
Cape Male container ship
Along the journey you will see the immense Bosphorus Bridge (officially the 15 July Martyrs Bridge). Upon its completion in 1973 it was the fourth longest suspension bridge in existence.
Çamlıca Mosque beyond the Bosphorus Bridge
Along the way you’ll pass many interesting structures, such as the Küçüksu Pavilion built in 1857:
Küçüksu Pavilion
Here’s a very interesting photo subject known as the Ortaköy Mosque, built around 1855:
Ortaköy Mosque
Being such a vitally strategic strait, the Bosporus obviously warranted defense. And on this cruise you’ll see a medieval Ottoman Empire fortress built for just that purpose. This is the Rumelihisarı Fortress built in 1452:
Rumelihisarı Fortress
We’ll return to this Bosporus boat tour on Wednesday, but until then I’ll leave you with two final images:
Ursula and I made a recent stop at my favorite local gun store, Collector’s Gun Exchange. As I was perusing the shop, focusing mainly upon the more collectible firearms, salesman Cameron was playing around with a neat little pistol that had just arrived a very few hours earlier. He handed it over to me and asked what I thought of it. My first impression upon feeling the weight and noting the diminutive size was, is this a .22? Nope. It was the new Smith and Wesson Bodyguard 2.0, which comes chambered in .380 ACP/9mm kurz. I was immediately impressed. And when Cameron pointed out to me that this striker-fired elf came with a manual thumb safety, I was pretty much sold.
S&W Bodyguard 2.0 .380 TS (Thumb Safety)
And then I tried the trigger. Smooth, and light. Lighter than even my Sig P365 SAS (which I modified to include a manual safety), which I’ve carried for five years now, but not as good as the single-action mode on my previous carry weapon, the incomparabe Walther P99c AS. My only minor quibble was the longish takeup, about 5mm, with the reset coming in at about the same. More on the trigger later.
S&W Bodyguard 2.0 TS — comes with a 10-round and 12-round magazine
It’s nice that Smith and Wesson includes both a 10-round and 12-round magazine. It would be even better if S&W included a second 12-rounder for a total of three magazines, but since Sig Sauer only gave me two 10-rounders with the P365 I guess I’m not going to complain.
TS = Thumb Safety; NTS = No Thumb Safety
The Bodyguard 2.0 comes in two flavors — Rocky Road and Strawberry Cheesecake. No, wait. I’m thinking of something else. The Bodyguard 2.0 flavors are TS and NTS. The Bodyguard 2.0 TS is equipped with an ambidextrous Thumb Safety, and the NTS has No Thumb Safety. When it comes to a carry weapon, I’m all about the safety. All my carry pieces are either double-action/single-action, have a manual safety, or both. Holding the Bodyguard in my right had, I have no trouble disengaging or re-engaging the safety. Switching to the left hand did not go as smoothly for some reason. Unless my left thumb is drastically weaker than my right, which I doubt, this thing is just darn sticky on the starboard side of the firearm. I’ve been working the safety a bit, and it seems to be smoothing out.
Bodyguard 2.0 TS with ambidextrous manual thumb safety
Now back to the trigger. It’s a flat-face, which seems to be the current rage. And it does seem to assist somewhat in keeping a consistent pull. I rather like it. The pull weight is defintely nice, as well. A five-pull average on my trusty Lyman Digital Guage shows 4 pounds 3.6 ounces/1,915 grams. That certainly beats the P365, which comes in at 6 pounds 8.7 ounces/2,969 grams. For an additional comparison, the AS trigger on the Walther P99 was advertised as 4.4 pounds/2kg in single-action and exactly twice that in double-action. So, the P99’s single-action pretty much matches the Bodyguard’s pull weight.
The Bodyguard’s takedown and reassembly beats the P365 hands down, but that’s because the SAS variant of the P365 swaps out an actual lever for a difficult-to-manipulate slotted head. One word of caution on taking down the Bodyguard: with the slide locked back, depress the ejector all the way down. It’s even more important to make sure the ejector is down before reinstalling the slide. Failure to do so will potentially snag the ejector and possibly damage it.
Bodyguard 2.0 ready for disassembly
To raise the ejector after reassembly, simply insert an empty magazine. If you don’t raise the ejector, the trigger will not engage the striker and you will be unable to function-check the firearm after getting it back together.
Bodyguard ejector in the raised position; make sure you lower it.
After removing the slide, everything else is a snap. Compress the guide rod and lift away from the barrel lug, then remove the barrel:
Disassembled Bodyguard 2.0
Slide with barrel and guide rod
Slide with barrel and guide rod removed
Frame with slide removed
Reassembly is not quite as easy. I had a dickens of a time reinstalling the guide rod. The darn spring just refused to compress. It was almost as if the spring was binding at the forward end of the rod when I placed it into the slide guide rod cutout. Several attempts to remove the guide rod and compress the spring with my fingers, and later a flathead screwdriver, took quite a bit of effort. But after repeated attempts I got the spring to move, and eventually got the guide rod back in, compressed, and reseated onto the barrel lug. I suspect I may have a faulty spring, but once I got it back in there was no binding.
Bodyguard U-notch rear sight
The sights are a bit like a Spaghetti Western — There’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good is that the front sight is tritium with a high-visibility orange surround. The bad are that the tritium portion is very tiny. The ugly is the absolutely hideous U-notch rear sight — all black with no side indices for low-light acquisition and a ridiculously wide notch. There will be no match shooting with this handgun. But, then again, that’s not why it exists. Inside of 25 yards/23.8 meters I doubt I’ll have problems keeping on paper. I may not be as accurate in the dark, however. There’s simply no way to tell if I have the front sight within the notch, let alone have it centered left, right, up, or down. That’s certainly a minus in comparison with the P365’s Mepro FT Bullseye, even though the FT Bullseye also has its challenges in low-light situations.
Bodyguard 2.0 tritium front sight with orange surround
So, am I ready to swap out the P365? I think so. I’m definitely going to consider it after I’ve thoroughly checked out the Bodyguard for reliability. It’s smaller, much lighter, and holds the same number of rounds. The only downside is that I’ll be stepping down to .380 ACP/9mm kurz from the more powerful 9mm Luger. But, heck, I’ve even been known on occasion to carry .32 ACP/6.35 mm in a Beretta 3032 Tomcat or a Walther PPK and still not feel insufficiently armed.
S&W Bodyguard 2.0 vs Sig Sauer P365 SAS
I mentioned a moment ago that the S&W Bodyguard is considerably lighter than the Sig Sauer P365 SAS. I measured them today, both with empty 10-round magazines inserted. The P365 weighs 17.88 ounces/507 grams while the Bodyguard is a featherweight 11.48 ounces/326 grams.
S&W Bodyguard 2.0 vs Sig Sauer P365 SAS
S&W Bodyguard 2.0 TS Dimensions and Other Information:
What’s that old saying? Oh, yeah. When in Türkiye, eat Turkish. And döner kebab is about as Turkish as it gets. Located approximately three minutes, via foot, from our hotel in the Sultanahmet District of Istanbul was what appeared to be a local favorite — TuR DÖNER. How good was this place. Well, I didn’t know it at the time, but 559 Google reviewers give it an average 4.9 rating. I just looked that up for this article, and I have to concur with that extraordinarily high rating. But Ursula and I figured the place was a winner when we saw that most of the clietele were locals. That’s something we look for when sampling the local fare.
Traveler Tip of the Day: When asking your hotel staff or a local for a restaurant recommendation, inquire where they like to dine for local fare. That generally will get you to the best place for local cuisine, and watch how the local’s face lights up when they understand you want to partake in their country’s food culture. It also keeps you out of the more touristy establishments.
Döner kebab rotating on vertical rotisseries — lamb and beef
The address for this wonderful establishment is Mimar Mehmet Ağa Cd. No. 6, Sultanahmet, Fatih, Istanbul. The place had the feel of a family-run endeavor, and the staff were incredibly friendly and accommodating to our linguistically challenged presence. Indeed, I got the impression they were falling over backwards to cater to us. Around the corner is a similarly named Turgut Döner, but I do not believe they are affiliated. Adding to the confusion: TuR DÖNER’s paper placemats are apparently from Turgut Döner.
Turgut Döner placemat used at TuR DÖNER
Ursula and I both had the beef döner, which turned out to be way too much for us as it also came with TuR DÖNER’s incredible hummus.
Just one of our two beef döner kebab orders
TuR DÖNER hummus
This was my very first experience with döner kebab, but it certainly won’t be my last. Now, the next time I visit the Middle East (Abu Dhabi and Dubai articles will follow this series on Istanbul) I want to partake of the similar Arab dish shawarma. But for this day I was just glad we decided to go native:
Beef döner kebab from TuR DÖNER
Today is a two-fer. Not only are you getting a Fun Food Friday, you’re also being treated to the first of several Fun Photo Fridays of Istanbul favorites:
Watch That First Step — It’s a Doozy
Blue Skies Above the Blue Mosque
Istanbul Balcony
Layers of the Hagia Sophia
Beginning next Monday I’ll take you on a photo cruise on the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn.
Decisions — Murder in Paradise
The Globe — Murder in Luxury
R. Doug Wicker — Author 