After a late breakfast this morning and catching up on yesterday’s blog, I met mom and Lyn in the Showroom for some bingo…because you cannot go on a cruise without playing bingo at least once. I think it is some kind of maritime law or something. Unfortunately, my winning streak did not carry over from last night, nor did mom or Lyn come out victorious. Guess we will have to try again.
Regarding catching up on the blog…I have been meaning to mention that although I have had wireless internet access in our room everyday, the connection speed certainly has left something to be desired. I have been typing up the blog in Word, then after connecting, doing a copy and paste into Blogger. We were able to take a lot of really nice pictures in Athens yesterday; however with the internet connection what it is, it just isn’t practical to try and upload any pictures. The one of Melauna on one of the bridges over a canal in Venice that I posted on Day 2 took about five minutes to load…so forget it. I think I will just wait until we are back home and upload them all to Flickr or something similar.
After a quick lunch in the Lido, we all got ready for our arrival in Istanbul. I sat out on the veranda to watch the sail in which was really pretty neat to witness. Since Istanbul straddles both Europe and Asia, you get a rare opportunity to see two continents all for the price of one admission. Tom the Tour Guide was pointing out some of the highlights that we will be touring tomorrow; the Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace to name a few. We docked around 3:30 and after picking up mom and Lyn, made a quick exit off the ship. We had decided to use the time that we had today to go to the Grand Bazaar which we actually had scheduled for tomorrow, hopefully freeing up more time for tomorrow’s sites. We opted to hire a cab to take us to the Grand Bazaar rather than take the ship’s tour bus and really glad that we did. Our cab driver’s name was Yasor Mataraci and what a great guy he turned out to be. Istanbul is a city of 15 million people and I think that everyone of them was out driving cars, cabs or busses. Holy cow, the traffic! This is an enormous city and incredibly congested. After making the drive to the Grand Bazaar, which is not far as the crow flies, but took about a half an hour, we asked Yasar if he could be there to pick us up at 6:30. He said that he would and I tipped him a little extra in hopes that he would make good on his word. I cannot possibly describe the frenetic place that Istanbul is…I suppose New York City on steroids is as good as I can do. From our drop off point to the entrance to the Bazaar was about a five minute walk after which the sales onslaught began. We have been to bazaars in Morocco, so had an idea what to expect, but the unrelenting salesmen beatdowns that you encounter from guys selling watches, rugs, scarves, and everything else under the sun is enough to make your head spin. Two hours was plenty of time although you could easily spend a week in there if that was your thing. I enjoy getting to see other cultures and gathering places that are so different from what we see in the US normally, so from that standpoint, I did enjoy it; however there were no bargains to be found and actually the prices were outrageous in my opinion. I expected the whole banter back and forth on coming to an acceptable price, such as our experience in Morocco, but that really wasn’t the case here. For example, I like old maps and especially ones from the place that I am visiting. I found a store that had some old maps scattered amongst 50 billion other things and asked how much they wanted…$750US. What? I had bought a similar map in size, age and quality in Sweden for $80US in a store that specialized in old maps. Obviously I am not implying that everything in Istanbul should cost the same as in Sweden, but that is a pretty big disparity in price for similar objects. Anyway, I shook my head, set it down and said “too much”. The store owner shook her head and that was it…ok…whatever. No haggling, no nothing… Lyn experienced this several times with items that she found. Small antiques primarily. Seemed like everything that wasn’t a fake Rolex or evil eye amulet started at $500US. In the end, I didn’t buy a single thing and I almost always can find some memento to take home with me. Melauna found some overpriced dishes to buy, neither mom nor Lyn ended up with anything either. In the end, I am glad that I have experienced the famous Grand Bazaar of Istanbul but can check it off the list and have no desire to go back.
We made our way back to our original drop off point and lo and behold Yasar was there waiting for us right where he said that he would be. He had shed the taxi and had picked us up in his father’s car. Still no a/c however, but fortunately is was a pleasant 75°F outside. On our way back to the ship, he stopped at a shop that sells “the best baklava in the world”. I haven’t tried baklava all over the world, but after tying what this shop sold, I would mind giving it a shot…wow…was that good. I think Melauna bought about 35 pounds of it…two of everything that they sold…and this was a big shop, not some crappy little hole-in-the-wall baklava shop like they have in Romania or Botswana.
After a traffic laden trek back from the Grand Bazaar, Yasar had us to the ship and then didn’t want to accept any payment for the ride…What? I had read that the Turks were very kind and friendly people but come on! Yasar was paid well and received my heartfelt thanks for his efforts and keeping his word.
Regarding catching up on the blog…I have been meaning to mention that although I have had wireless internet access in our room everyday, the connection speed certainly has left something to be desired. I have been typing up the blog in Word, then after connecting, doing a copy and paste into Blogger. We were able to take a lot of really nice pictures in Athens yesterday; however with the internet connection what it is, it just isn’t practical to try and upload any pictures. The one of Melauna on one of the bridges over a canal in Venice that I posted on Day 2 took about five minutes to load…so forget it. I think I will just wait until we are back home and upload them all to Flickr or something similar.
After a quick lunch in the Lido, we all got ready for our arrival in Istanbul. I sat out on the veranda to watch the sail in which was really pretty neat to witness. Since Istanbul straddles both Europe and Asia, you get a rare opportunity to see two continents all for the price of one admission. Tom the Tour Guide was pointing out some of the highlights that we will be touring tomorrow; the Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace to name a few. We docked around 3:30 and after picking up mom and Lyn, made a quick exit off the ship. We had decided to use the time that we had today to go to the Grand Bazaar which we actually had scheduled for tomorrow, hopefully freeing up more time for tomorrow’s sites. We opted to hire a cab to take us to the Grand Bazaar rather than take the ship’s tour bus and really glad that we did. Our cab driver’s name was Yasor Mataraci and what a great guy he turned out to be. Istanbul is a city of 15 million people and I think that everyone of them was out driving cars, cabs or busses. Holy cow, the traffic! This is an enormous city and incredibly congested. After making the drive to the Grand Bazaar, which is not far as the crow flies, but took about a half an hour, we asked Yasar if he could be there to pick us up at 6:30. He said that he would and I tipped him a little extra in hopes that he would make good on his word. I cannot possibly describe the frenetic place that Istanbul is…I suppose New York City on steroids is as good as I can do. From our drop off point to the entrance to the Bazaar was about a five minute walk after which the sales onslaught began. We have been to bazaars in Morocco, so had an idea what to expect, but the unrelenting salesmen beatdowns that you encounter from guys selling watches, rugs, scarves, and everything else under the sun is enough to make your head spin. Two hours was plenty of time although you could easily spend a week in there if that was your thing. I enjoy getting to see other cultures and gathering places that are so different from what we see in the US normally, so from that standpoint, I did enjoy it; however there were no bargains to be found and actually the prices were outrageous in my opinion. I expected the whole banter back and forth on coming to an acceptable price, such as our experience in Morocco, but that really wasn’t the case here. For example, I like old maps and especially ones from the place that I am visiting. I found a store that had some old maps scattered amongst 50 billion other things and asked how much they wanted…$750US. What? I had bought a similar map in size, age and quality in Sweden for $80US in a store that specialized in old maps. Obviously I am not implying that everything in Istanbul should cost the same as in Sweden, but that is a pretty big disparity in price for similar objects. Anyway, I shook my head, set it down and said “too much”. The store owner shook her head and that was it…ok…whatever. No haggling, no nothing… Lyn experienced this several times with items that she found. Small antiques primarily. Seemed like everything that wasn’t a fake Rolex or evil eye amulet started at $500US. In the end, I didn’t buy a single thing and I almost always can find some memento to take home with me. Melauna found some overpriced dishes to buy, neither mom nor Lyn ended up with anything either. In the end, I am glad that I have experienced the famous Grand Bazaar of Istanbul but can check it off the list and have no desire to go back.
We made our way back to our original drop off point and lo and behold Yasar was there waiting for us right where he said that he would be. He had shed the taxi and had picked us up in his father’s car. Still no a/c however, but fortunately is was a pleasant 75°F outside. On our way back to the ship, he stopped at a shop that sells “the best baklava in the world”. I haven’t tried baklava all over the world, but after tying what this shop sold, I would mind giving it a shot…wow…was that good. I think Melauna bought about 35 pounds of it…two of everything that they sold…and this was a big shop, not some crappy little hole-in-the-wall baklava shop like they have in Romania or Botswana.
After a traffic laden trek back from the Grand Bazaar, Yasar had us to the ship and then didn’t want to accept any payment for the ride…What? I had read that the Turks were very kind and friendly people but come on! Yasar was paid well and received my heartfelt thanks for his efforts and keeping his word.
We had originally intended to have an authentic dinner in Istanbul tonight, but everyone was ready to be out of the hustle and bustle and into the relative quiet of the ship. So, after dropping off our crates of baklava, Melauna and I met mom and Lyn in the Lido for a light dinner before bed. After saying our goodbyes for the, I enjoyed the rest of the evening reading out on the veranda to the sounds ships passing through the Bosporus Straits.
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