Cruise:Istanbul

Sat Aug 26, 2000

7 am : A white stretch limo arrives to pick us up. We made Mimosas with the half bottle of champagne left from the night before and since we needed disposable cups, we used plastic (keg) Shiner cups from Kim and Rich. Really classy!

9 am : Delta flight to Atlanta. Jill started talking to the guy in the window seat and he was from Istanbul (our first destination.) He was very excited and wanted us to ask him any question about the city. His understanding and speaking of English wasn't outstanding, but we managed to communicate. Using a map in our guidebook, he pointed out the area where he lives and where his office has been for 40 years. He left us with the phone number of an office mate and said please call if we needed any help or a tour guide.

11 am : Atlanta. We sat down in the gate area just prior to our flight and noticed that the older (much) couple across from us had Princess Cruise luggage tags already on their bags. We talked to them a little while about the upcoming long flight and exciting trip. This couple had already been on 14 cruising. Surprise -> they live in Florida! As we boarded the flight to JFK, we realized a few other passengers were bound for Istanbul and the Grand Med Cruise, including one middle aged man from Springfield.

5 pm : Waiting for our 9.55 hour flight to Turkey, there are even more fellow cruise passengers waiting with us. We are still the youngest by a long shot.

Sun Aug 27, 2000

We arrive in Istanbul at 10:25 am local time which feels like 2:25 am Houston time. It was a long flight, but Jill managed to sleep for most of it after dinner. Keith slept a little. The airport was clean and easy to navigate and customs clearance only took minutes. There were many Princess representatives, one every 20 feet, so there was no chance of getting separated. It took a long while for our luggage but that just meant lass waiting on the bus!

We took a bus to the Conrad where they herded us into a reception room and did an introduction, then they handed out room keys. It took a while but it gave the hotel a little time to get bags sorted. We did spot one other young couple so there may be hope yet. We finally got to our room about 12:45. We rested/read for a while waiting for our bags. We were finally cleaned up and ready to see the sights at 2 pm.

A taxi from the hotel took us to Aya Sofya (St. Sophia) which is right between the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. We opted for Topkapi palace first, since it wasn't closing until 5. Tickets were 4,000,000 Turkish Lira, or about $7. Paying millions of Lira for something just feels weird. We walked through the courtyard to see the kitchens with old Ottoman silverware and serve ware, but were disappointed that the Chinese porcelain rooms were closed. We then headed straight to the Harem entrance to get tickets and stand in line for half an hour. The Harem tour was well worth the extra tickets and the wait. The guide spoke both in Turkish and heavily-accented English. The Harem showed the opulence of the Sultan and his family. Most of the walls were brilliantly tiled. It's truly amazing that most of this was built in the 16th century.

Our first picture : part of Keith's head, and a blurry ceiling in the Harem

After the Harem tour, we exited into the 3rd courtyard and walked through a hall with religious relics, like things from the Prophet Mohammed. There were many Muslims in here pushing to see the exhibits and there was a Muslim guy singing prayers over a PA system that added to the aura of the place.

We crossed the courtyard and toured the treasury, which contained an amazing collection of valuable jewels set into thrones, crests or jewelry. The two highlights were the emerald handled dagger from the movie Topkepi, and the 86 carat spoon-makers diamond. Amazing.

Jill admiring some of the items in the Treasury. Luckily, nothing was for sale.

On the ride over to the palace, we got our first views of the Grand Princess docked at the pier. She was across the Golden Horn from the Palace so we had a good view of her from some of the rooms.

We were both feeling pretty tired and out of it so about 4:30 we left the palace in search of food. Unfortunately it had turned a little cool and breezy and began sprinkling. We walked through the streets to the train station near the Galata Bridge (over the Golden Horn) and looked for a place to eat from the tour book. That failing (closed on Sundays), we walked back up the street to a place we had just passed and thought it looked good.

We ATM'ed some cash (50 million Lira!!!) and headed in. We ordered our meal by pointing, even though one waiter spoke English. Figured we couldn't go wrong by pointing at what the locals were eating. We were served slices of sourdough bread to snack on. Our meal was a tin platter with hunks of cut up pita covered with beef from the donner and a tomato sauce. IT also had homemade yogurt and some sliced tomatoes. It was really tasty and hit the spot. We also tried the sweet rice pudding - very good.

The place we ate lunch. The streets are still wet from the rain.

We easily hailed a taxi back to the Conrad, got there about 5:30 and crashed immediately, sleeping till 8:15 then reading in bed until 10:30. Luckily enough, we both slept until 7 am, and that was the end of our jet lag for the trip.

Monday Aug 28

We had the free breakfast buffet at the Conrad (busy but crowded with cruisers) and then took a walk down to the river and watched the locals coming across the ferries to work. We walked back up through a small outdoor fruit and veggie market. We were transferred from the hotel to the ship (don't ever call it a boat!) at 9:30. Check in was fast but we were too early to get our room.

Veggie Market

We walked out to the main street to catch a cab (less than half the cost of the rip-off cabs at the ship). We took the taxi back to the old city, but Aya Sofya was closed so we started walking to the Grand Bazaar. Along the way we stopped at a carpet shopped a bit - prices for Kilim's were pretty good.

The Grand Bazaar was neat to see, but quite annoying, with too many pushy vendors. Lots of carpets and jewelry. The Bazaar is 80 streets and about 5000 stores all in a central covered area.

A Mosque (we think) connected to the Grand Bazaar

Inside the Bazaar. Jill's shopping for carpets.

After the Bazaar, we walked back to the carpet store we had passed earlier, as prices and quality were much better than the Bazaar. The store owner served us apple tea while we looked. We ended up buying two carpets (Jill's bargaining class paying off again).

Sitting out in a park with the Blue Mosque behind

Had lunch down the street, Keith had a lamb donner sandwich and Jill had the shredded chicken with mashed potato top (Turkish shepherd's pie!) and of course a rice pudding dessert.

We walked through the Hippodrome to the Blue Mosque, but had to wait outside for about 20 minutes since it was midday prayer time.

The Hippodrome with 2 Egyptian obelisks

Inside the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

We carried our shoes in plastic bags into the Blue Mosque (why they don't make tourists just leave them outside with everyone else's, I have no idea.) It was very cool, but didn't take long to see. Blue tiles everywhere.

Inside the Blue Mosque

The ceiling of the Blue Mosque

More Blue Mosque

More

Jill and Keith in the Blue Mosque (Scott and Carrie, this one's for you.)

We exited the Mosque into a courtyard between the Mosque and Aya Sofya. It was a great view of the two buildings.

Aya Sofya from the Blue Mosque

We walked all the way to the spice market (Egyptian Bazaar) - not a short walk at all. It was much better sight seeing that the Grand Bazaar, as they were sacks of spices, tubs of olives and tins of cheese.

Two kittens asleep on a stand at the spice market. Five cat mom (Brigitte) - this one's for you.

Spices

Figs

Olives

Tins of white cheese

Since we were close to the Galata Bridge we just walked over the bridge, then saw a little fish market to look through and then just deciding we could walk the rest of the way to the ship.

The view across the Galata bridge, with the Grand Princess in the background.

Local fish market

Looking back across the Galata Bridge

When we got back to the ship, our room was ready, but we only had our duffel bag and no clothes or shower stuff. We walked the ship for a while with our maps in hand, had a couple of glasses of wine and finally got our luggage around 7:30 pm. We showered and changed just in time for our late dinner seating at 8:45. Our dinner was at a table for eight, but two were missing the first night. The others were Norma from Scotland, Carol from Tampa and Larry and Jar from New Jersey. Dinner was good. After dinner, we went to the 11 pm comedy show, with our annoying cruise director Keith Cox singing and dancing a little. The comedian was actually pretty good though, but the cruise dancers left much to be desired.

We headed up to the top of the ship to Sky Walkers club, but were just there for a few seconds. It had a great view of Istanbul, but it was loud and smoky. The casino wasn't open while we were in port, so we crashed at 12:30.

Tuesday Aug 29

We had breakfast in the Da Vinci dinning room, then we headed out to Aya Sofya. We got there early (9 am), but it didn't open till 9:30. We walked around the hippodrome, where tour busses where showing up en masse, and the main street to buy postcards and bookmarks. We decided to go into the underground cisterns while we waited. It was a neat walk through 300 columns, used to store water in case the city was under siege.

The columns in the cistern were lit up with colored lights

This column had a Medusa head carved into the base

When we came out the church was open.

Aya Sofya was formerly the largest Christian church, but was converted to a Mosque. It was very impressive and we were in awe of its size and historical importance. We dodged the tour groups and headed upstairs to view the impressive mosaics that were uncovered. The original Christian decorations were tile mosaics similar to St. Marks in Venice, but everything was scraped off or plastered over when it was converted into a Mosque.

Aya Sofya, and all those tourists.

A recovered Christian mosaic between two Muslim signs

A tour group looking at 2 recovered mosaics on the second floor

Jill standing in front of a recovered mosaic (and a big tourist group)

We bought a 2.5 liter of Coke and Fanta to use with our duty free rum and then grabbed a taxi to the ship around 10:30. We napped for a little while then went up on deck for the sail away. Once the boat pulled away (2 pm), we finally felt like we really were on a cruise. The views of the shore from the ship were awesome. We even saw the Catherine Knutsen, a ship Jill's company has chartered, as we sailed out of the harbor.

Topkapi Palace from the ship

Jill, with the Drink Of The Day, in front of old Istanbul

Topkapi palace on the right, Aya Sofya in the middle and the Blue Mosque to the left

Aya Sofya from the ship

Goodbye to Istanbul

The weather was cool, in the mid 80's, so we didn't feel like swimming, so we headed back to the room for another nap (seems to be a trend here...) and then had a snack in the Horizon Court, the 24 hour buffet, around 5:30. We relaxed in the room a little (there might have been wine and/or rum involved) before getting ready for the first formal night, the Captain's cocktail party and dinner.

Jill wore the navy blue dress from Jen and Chris's wedding and Keith got to wear his new tux for the first time. We dressed and then headed to the atrium for pictures, a big deal on any night that wasn't casual. Cocktails were free so we each had a gin and tonic and talked to the cruise sales lady, Ramona. The captain gave a funny welcome address and some lady from Hong Kong snook up next to the captain for a picture.

Dinner was lobster thermador and Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc and chocolate Hazelnut souffle.

We danced in the Painted Desert, saw the boring show Glamour, and then walked around the ship's deck before retiring at 2 am (not that hard with all those naps.)