Day 9 October 19 - Istanbul- My Birthday!

For my birthday, JoAnne gave me a beautiful “evil eye” ornament that she had found at the bazaar the night before, a blue glass ball with the eye on it on four sides, enclosed in a silver casing. We woke up with the intention of catching an early tender to the city. But the tender people thought otherwise. They decided to wait until we were full. Then there was a woman who stood on the bow and waited for her husband, or someone in her group anyway. And they let her. We waited and waited. We finally left and got to the city at about 9am, half hour later than we had wanted to actually be at the Blue Mosque.

We made our way to the tram and got off the same place we did yesterday. We paid our money to use the public WC, where JoAnne found an interesting toilet. The weather was nicer and we took some good photos of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque from the outside before going into the mosque. We spent about a half an hour inside, taking photos of the beautiful blue tiles, stained glass windows and the chandelier. Although it was nice, I thought the mosque in we saw in Cairo a couple of years ago was more beautiful.

As we were leaving, Rick overheard a tour guide saying if we “walk this way” we would get to the Hippodrome, so we followed them. Apparently in ancient times this area was a huge amphitheater with the track inside, with three obelisks marking the two ends and middle of the track. All that remains are parts of the three obelisks. One from Egypt at one end, the Constantine column at the other made of stones, and the serpents column in the middle, made of metal twisted into the air. This one only has the base remaining today.

We left the hippodrome heading to the Topkapai Palace, only to get slightly lost on the way. But we quickly figured that out, and with the help of a tour bus driver, headed in the right direction. We stopped and bought a simit to eat, which is like a ring shaped sesame bagel, or a pretzel with sesame seeds instead of salt. It was warm and fresh. The palace grounds are quite large. There is a museum inside the palace walls near the entrance gate we passed through, which we bypassed due to lack of time. We found the kiosk where we purchased tickets to the main facility for 20 Turkish lira each. A guide was available for an additional 10 lira each, but we decided to wander on our own, which worked out fine. The map was very clear and there were signs everywhere. The entrance to the main palace grounds looked like the entrance to Disneyworld to me. We saw the divan room where the sultan took guests, the armory, and four rooms containing some of the treasures of the sultan. This included lots of gems and jewels including a broach with an 81 karat diamond. There were crystal boxes holding huge, golf ball sized emeralds, furniture encrusted in emeralds, pearls, rubies and turquoise. Apparently turquoise comes from Turkey, hence its name. Anyway, it was all very impressive, but it took a long time to see it all because the place was very crowded. One thing that surprised us was how rude some of the Turkish women were. Twice we encountered groups of women who just wanted to bypass the lines and tried to barge their way in, as if they were entitled to for some reason. Another section of the treasury held important religious relics, including bones, hair and other parts of the Prophets. There was also parts of a room that was carried from Turkey to Mecca. There were videos explaining what we were seeing, but it wasn’t in English, so I am not totally sure what it all was. If we had more time it would have been worth trying to find out, because it was clearly significant. There was a special building that was the circumcision pavilian which had absolutely beautiful tiles. There another pavilian with niches it the walls that held the turbans and hats of the sultan. Due to lack of time we did not get to see the Harem, which we had been told were worth seeing. I guess we will have to go back!

We made our way back to the ship, taking the tram. It was more crowded this time and I ended up having to enter the tram through a different door than JoAnne and Rick. But people were friendly and smiling and I did not feel uncomfortable. I made my way up to them as people got off the tram and eventually we exited and said our goodbye’s to Istanbul. We were back on the ship by 1pm and had a quick lunch at the buffet. (The banana rum ice cream was yummy!) I headed to the spa for about an hour and a half, enjoying the T-pool, steam room and sauna.

It was the second formal night that night, and I wore my Asian inspired pant suit with my hair up. We took lots of photos as we headed to dinner. We were met first by Wendy and John who surprised me for my birthday by buying a bottle of champagne to share to celebrate. The chef must have known it was my birthday because rack of lamb was on the menu tonight! I had escargot and cesaer salad first and the lamb was served with roasted potatoes. It was the best meal we had on the ship. Mom and Dad had given JoAnne money to buy a bottle of wine to have with dinner. The assistant maitre’d brought a chocolate cake with a candle for my birthday and he and Mario and Jose sang to me. The cake was excellent. They had other desserts, but the cake was the best.

After dinner we had a few formal photos taken then I hammed it up for JoAnne and Rick and their cameras. I posed with flowers, columns, artwork and in the casino pretending we were big spenders. It was all very hilarious and the photos confirm it! We went to the show that night which was a rock n roll review,which we enjoyed. Afterwards, we went to kereoke and I sang “California Dreaming” with JoAnne as my backup.

It was a fun day, I will always remember my 50th birthday. Thanks Rick and JoAnne!

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