Well we have settled ın well to the cruise and are quicly learning how everything works onboard. The ship ıs quite amazing and really has everything you could need. There are more bars than you could ever want, a full casino, a lıbrary, about 5 restaurants, indoor and outdoor pools, a nightclub (although we haven't really seen tht ın action yet, a gym and spa, a spots deck, a cınema, a theatre and all sorts of other bits and pieces. We have had a day at sea - thankfully there are only 2 on thıs cruise as we were bored by about 3pm. we had a go at Bingo.....what a pair of nanas, didn't win anything though! logan took part in the firts qualifying round for the Officers Texas Hold'em challenge and kicked but. He had the game won in 15 minutes flat! There are 2300 passengers on our cruise so the logistics of getting everyone through mealtimes (especially dinner) is pretty impressive. They certainly like feeding you....if you don't have 3 courses at every meal they ask you why! They frequently have frogs legs and snails on the menu, so Sara tried some snails on the first night. They are almost lıke mushrooms soaked in garlic butter, nothing particularly special. The show on the first nıght was a variety show that introduced all of the entertainers, and the second night was a show they had put together - really nothing special after spending a week on Westend, but still entertaining.
We are still getting used to the fact that everyone wanders around in bikinis and speedos regardless of age or appearance.....even dancing to the band in front of the pool in nothing but speedos....Logan is particularly enjoying that!
We are still getting used to the fact that everyone wanders around in bikinis and speedos regardless of age or appearance.....even dancing to the band in front of the pool in nothing but speedos....Logan is particularly enjoying that!
We ended up with a lot less time in Istanbul than we would have like as a lot of it got consumed with travel time, but managed to get out to look around İstanbul during the day on Sunday and managed to tick off a lot of the things you should see. Unfortunately some people we spoke to on the cruise told us that the Grand Bazaar was shut on Sundays so we dıdn't bother goıng there, only to fınd out thats not the case at all. We still managed to visit some mosques, and we went to the Hagia Soifıa, the Hıppodromme (which was very underwhelming) and a few smaller bazaars to see what the shopping was like. We found a lovely little tea garden on top of a hill that overlooked Bosphorus where we trid Turkish Black Tea out of a little copper double tea pot. The bridge leading over to the main part of Istanbul is pretty crazy, it is obviously a popular fishing destination, and the entire bridge (probably 500m long) has people shoulder to shoulder fishing off the side of it.
The eeire part about Turkey - and it is all of the places we have been in Turkey - is the prayer calls. All of the mosques have speakers on top of them, and at certain times of the day they do prayer calls. All of the Mosques have a person chanting and they are all chanting something different - it can be heard all over the city. All of the mosques also have wash stations outside them, and a lot of them were occupied with men washing their hands, faces and feet before and after praying.
We did finally find somewhere that sold Apple Tea, so had to stop and have some of that - once we found the first place everywhere we went had it......thank goodness as it is the only hot drink you can drink in a hot climate that is still refreshing....yum!
After a full day at sea we landed in Kusadasi, a little bit further down the cost of Turkey. Our main focus for this stop was to get to Ephesus, so we managed to jump on a tour to the Virgin Mary house and the ruins of Ephesus fairly quickly. On walking through the shops outside the port there was a guy hanging out of the window on the top story with a cigarette in one hand and a sign in the other advertising the tour.
The drive out to Ephesus was about 30 minutes or so and thankfully not as crazy as Istanbul. Our first stop was the Virgin Mary House where she lived til she died - it was absolutely packed! Then we headed to Ephesus. The ruins were a lot bigger than we were expecting - we thought is was just a couple of buildings, but they have excavated most of the significant buildings from the main part of the city. There was a population of around 200,000 people when it was inhabited so the actual city was quite big, although about 90% of it is still underground. The covered main street (not covered anymore) there that was built for processions for Cleopatra is made from solid marble!
It was a super hot day that day, and Ephesus was really jam packed with tour groups but still fascinating. Our Greek tour guide looked like he had been smoking hashish all morning, and at the end of the tour he asked everyone if they wanted to do a carpet demo and leather factory which is really big in Turkey. None of us were interested so all said no, only to fnid ourselves escorted to a carpet factory and shut in a room with a whole lot of carpet salesmen anyway.......what fun!
Our next stop on the cruise was Bodrum, which is a little further down the coast again. Logan fell in love with Bodrum. Again absolutely superb weather! We did our own little walking tour here as the town isn't very big at all, the ancient name for the town is Halicarnassus, and remnants of the old city wall and moat are still there. We headed straight to the Castle of St Peter the Liberator and had a look around, it sits right on the water front and is really well preserved. Bodrum has a very resort feel, a lot quieter than Istanbul and the shop keepers don't hassle you anywhere near as much. The marina was full of yachts made in Bodrum, absolutely beautiful old style wooden yachts that are called Gulets.
We headed up some impressive streets to the 2000 year old amphitheatre that overlooks the town and the water, it is a stunning view, and the amphitheatre has been restored and is still used by the town today.
We also looked at the Tomb of Mausolos and went to Myndos Gate which is one of the two gates into the old city of Halicarnassus.
After Bodrum we landed in Marmaris. Again a little further down the coast....there wasn't anything in particular we wanted to see in Marmaris so we decided it would be a good opportunity to take some washing off the ship and find a laundromat seeing as the ship do washing for about $3-$4 per item. We managed to find a place where the woman didn't speak any English so sign language prevailed and we managed to get her to do our washing, dry it and fold it for 10 Lira :)
It was a super hot day that day, and Ephesus was really jam packed with tour groups but still fascinating. Our Greek tour guide looked like he had been smoking hashish all morning, and at the end of the tour he asked everyone if they wanted to do a carpet demo and leather factory which is really big in Turkey. None of us were interested so all said no, only to fnid ourselves escorted to a carpet factory and shut in a room with a whole lot of carpet salesmen anyway.......what fun!
Our next stop on the cruise was Bodrum, which is a little further down the coast again. Logan fell in love with Bodrum. Again absolutely superb weather! We did our own little walking tour here as the town isn't very big at all, the ancient name for the town is Halicarnassus, and remnants of the old city wall and moat are still there. We headed straight to the Castle of St Peter the Liberator and had a look around, it sits right on the water front and is really well preserved. Bodrum has a very resort feel, a lot quieter than Istanbul and the shop keepers don't hassle you anywhere near as much. The marina was full of yachts made in Bodrum, absolutely beautiful old style wooden yachts that are called Gulets.
We headed up some impressive streets to the 2000 year old amphitheatre that overlooks the town and the water, it is a stunning view, and the amphitheatre has been restored and is still used by the town today.
We also looked at the Tomb of Mausolos and went to Myndos Gate which is one of the two gates into the old city of Halicarnassus.
After Bodrum we landed in Marmaris. Again a little further down the coast....there wasn't anything in particular we wanted to see in Marmaris so we decided it would be a good opportunity to take some washing off the ship and find a laundromat seeing as the ship do washing for about $3-$4 per item. We managed to find a place where the woman didn't speak any English so sign language prevailed and we managed to get her to do our washing, dry it and fold it for 10 Lira :)
Marmaris has one of the largest marinas in Turkey and it took about 20 minutres walk just to get out of the marina into the central town. There are cats everywhere all over Turkey, and in Marmaris we even saw a Cat Feeding Station with a sign and everything where people take food to feed the cats. After doing all of the essentials we found a nice waterfront cafe to enjoy a cold beverage where Sara got served Pina Coldas in naked lady shaped glasses and Logan tried some of the local Raki - a homemade brew even - that is a white coloured liquer that tastes like aniseed, but it is made out of grapes or plums. As this was out last port of call in Turkey we managed to squeeze in some Turkish Delight tasting....which was amazing, and we had dinner out at a little takeaway place, settling on a traditional Iskender - it was awesome, but qute different from what you would get if you ordered and Iskender at home. Our Turkish food is quite Westernised and has been blended with Greek food quite a bit too.
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