Gobble Gobble (Istanbul, Turkey)

First, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BRIAN! We've been together for 23 months. Wow... a lot has happened in 23 months! :)

Now on to the less mushy stuff. So we have officially finished our transition voyage (featuring over 7 countries in 12 days). We are no longer doing the Baltic Run, and have moved on to the Mediterranean season. Woo hoo beaches! Today marked our first day of the new run with an overnight in Istanbul, Turkey.

I slept in, and got off the ship with Christian, Iain and some of the other shoppees :D We're becoming an onboard family.

Also, note that backdated posts of Sicily and Athens are coming!!! I'm just a bit behind with the blogging and it is very difficult to catch back up due to slow/no internet.

My first view of a Turkish mosque.




My 2nd mosque.

Really big mosque.

Disney on Ice... a universal language.
There was some sort of protest happening in the pedestrian mall between where the crew shuttle dropped us off and the Grand Bazaar. Still don't know what they were protesting. But thought it was pretty unique. Pretty sure I ended up on Turkish TV somewhere... likely reported "fat American takes picture of protestors not understanding that they were protesting America."



First glimpse of the entrace to the Grand Bazaar.

I wish this picture weren't crooked, I really like it.
First side shoot of the bazaar.

Main path of the bazaar. It is about the length of two football fields, total area being probably about 4 football fields. Down this center hallway were all of the fine jewlery, leathers, and fur shops. Not exactly what we were looking for. The side sections were for knock offs and souvenirs! Perfect.
I did manage to pick up something for my mom and Roger here. Let's hope it stays in one piece for the next 6 months.

There are mosques everywhere you look... but for some reason they all pretty much look the same.


There is a major abundance of stray cats here. Like... they are EVERYWHERE.

I really like this picture, good lighting.

We aren't sure, but we think we missed the last shuttle back to the ship (not a big deal since we were there overnight, so it's not as if we were going to get left behind). But at the same time half of us were on port manning (we had to be on the ship from 8pm to 8am during the overnight) and I had a local show, so I needed to be at work by 8pm. Our group split into two taxis to get back to the ship. In 6 minutes, our taxi did what it took the shuttle bus 45 minutes to do. I was scared for my life. Almost broke the present I had just bought, and nearly crushed Iain against his side of the cab during a sharp turn. The other taxi showed up 10 minutes later. *shakes head*

The local show last night was absolutely TERRIBLE. It cost the ship 1150EUR (approximately $1700) and it was a piece of absolute crap. Embarrassing that it was the first thing these guests saw when they got onboard. I immediately went to the cruise director and asked him to cancel the remainder of their dates. We can have dark nights or variety shows, but I can't go through that again. Miserable.

The Hotel Director and the Staff Captain opened the helipad last night for a crew party. I did not bring my camera, but if I steal some of Christian's photos later I will shar them for sure. Istanbul shoreline at night is stunning. And there is one amazing bridge that changes colors, and all of the mosques are lit up and you can see them at the top of every hill. It's quite breath taking.

So I suppose, exept for the very brief part of my day that actually contained work, my day was awesome. And I will fire the Turkish show myself if the opportunity arises.