Istanbul - A simple night out for a change...

For the first time myself, Iain, Cristhian, and some others went out just to have a calm dinner in Istanbul close to the port. Nothing very exciting, except I spent some quality time with Paul and he's a really nice guy. Excellent in fact at his job. It was just nice to go out and not feel pressured to do sight seeing, or work, or anything. Just to be calm.
I ordered water with dinner (part of my biggest loser regiment). I got this... which I thought was awesome. It's like a plastic pouch of water sealed like a pudding cup. I took pictures because it was neato burrito!

I am 23 pounds down with Biggest Loser, by the way :)

A night on the town in Istanbul

A few of the shoppees and I went out for a night in Istanbul, Turkey. I had the night off for a change which was very relaxing. While I was off all day, they did not get released until 7:30pm, so we weren't able to leave before 8. The free shuttle stops running at 6pm, so we were forced to divide into two taxis. It is amazing how taxi prices vary. At the port the drivers will work together to force you to pay a high price. They were asking $20 to get to the Hagia Sophia which we were simply not willing to pay. On the street we found a cab willing to run off the meter, and we owed 9 Turkish Lira (about 4 dollars) for the ride. So silly.

When we got out of the cab we just started walking around and enjoying the beautiful night life of Istanbul. There is a general feeling in all of the small shops of "the more stuff the better." Some of these places are so cram packed with stuff that it really ends up looking like artwork, not souvenirs. The pictures below are from the inside of one really cool shop.

Display posters on the face of the steps.

Walls and walls full of magnets and plates.

Ceilings covered in decorative lanterns.

Below is half of the gang that went out with us. Iain is of course on the left, sitting next to Abdul. Then Praful, and Tony is on the far right. Abdul and Praful are really neat guys, and unfortunately they are signing off on the 25th (next Istanbul). We're really going to miss them... and the shop will certainly miss their sense of humor terribly. Abdul used to always call me Mary until he finally read my name tag one day and got really embarrassed. Now he calls me MaddieMaddie. Very sweet.

The rest of the gang, Christhian on the left and JC on the right.

Some street views of the bistro where we dined.

I wish these pictures had come out a bit brighter.

All in all, an excellent evening of relaxed fun with some really good, new friends. Couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my evening off.

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.