Day 8- October 18-Istanbul

Istanbul! I did not sleep well the night before, convinced that something would go wrong and Istanbul would be a disappointment. It was a gray day as we approached the city, our arrival time scheduled for 1pm. We had been told there was a schedule change and we would be tendering instead of docking, so I hoped that meant we would drop anchor closer to the old part of the city and shorten our trip to the area that most of us passengers would want to visit. Through the mist we could see lines of ships waiting to enter the Bosphorus en route to the Black Sea ports. Then the skyline of the city started to appear and all of the minerettes rose above the buildings. The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia stood out among all the other buildings. The Topkapai Palace below them along the waterfront. I could not wait to get off the ship and go explore! I was so tired, I hoped I would be able to last the day and enjoy the sights.

But we kept on sailing. The Galaxy headed up the Bosphorus and I thought we would never stop. We finally did, then we had to get our tender passes and make our way to the tender. The tender turned out to be a “barge” that held about 500 people at a time. So it took a while to load. Then we had a nice cruise down the river to where we should have docked. As I looked around, I realized we were seeing two continents at once, Europe and Asia. There were a lot of cruise ships docked, so I am not sure exactly which one took our spot, but I suspect it was the Radisson Seven Seas Voyager, since we seem to share the same terminal. They were embarking there and leaving on Sunday night, but let people off the ship on Saturday.

Once on land, we were greeted by a band in what I assume was traditional Turkish garb. We took some photos of men fishing the Bosphorus then headed to find the tram that we would use as our transportation around Istanbul. The stop was just a short walk from the port. It was as easy and convenient as I had read and began to feel better about doing Istanbul on our own. All the signs were in Turkish, but the major sites were also listed in English, so we knew which stop to get off. Because of the delay due to tendering, we arrived in Sultanhamut at about 3pm. The first sight we came to was the Basilica Cistern. This was an interesting stop, but not one we would need to go back to if we ever got back to Istanbul. The cistern was build around 527AD. The highlight was the two Medusa heads that were used as bases of two of the columns that held up the roof of the cistern. The columns of the cistern were scavenged from other buildings and the thought is that the Medusas were put in upside down and on their sides to show the power of Christianity over pagan gods. Another thought was they were put that way so people who looked at them wouldn’t turn to stone since they weren’t upright. Because the columns were from lots of other sights there are many different styles and marble types. One particular column is carved with “eyes” all over it.

After leaving the cistern, we headed to Hagia Sophia, the museum that has been an Orthodox cathedral as well as a mosque. Current restoration shows signs of both and it was interesting to see Byzantine icons next to classic mosque architecture. Since time was short we decided to make it a quick stop then head to the grand bazaar. The bazaar was scheduled to close at 7 and this is one port where we wanted to do some shopping. Following signs, we found it. The bazaar in Istanbul is a covered building, unlike what we saw in Cairo. There were lots of shops set into groups of similar wares. We entered in the leather section. No one had the leather driving gloves I was looking for. So onward we went. We saw the gold section, but we were not in the market for it, so we kept going. We found the area where classic Turkish goods were sold; lanterns, ceramics, tea, clothes etc. Rick wanted to find a soccer jersey, of course, so that is where we went first. He found a place that had what he wanted, but not his size, so we were invited in to have some apple tea while we waited for them to find his size. The tea was excellent and I added it to the list of things I wanted to buy. The wait took longer than I wanted, but the shopkeeper finally found the sizes, then we bargained and got two jerseys for $30. They had wanted $45. This was the start of our skills at striking bargains. By the time we were done, I got an Iznik hand painted bowl for $8 (wanted $23), tea and glasses set with 3 pc baklava for $12 (wanted $25 for the set w/o the baklava), a decorative pillow cover for $5 (wanted $20) and an Iznic ornament for $8 (wanted $16). JoAnne found a beautiful framed hand painted tile of a woman’s hammam. She paid with a credit card for that , but the merchant didn’t have his own credit machine, so he dragged her away to make the transaction. While Rick and I waited for her I stopped into a shop that had drums and cymbals. I thought it might be a cool gift for Bobby to get him a hand made Istanbul cymbal, but after looking at and listening to all the different ones, I had no idea what he would like, so I took a business card and passed on the purchase. The grand bazaar ended up staying open until 7:30 because it was so crowded. We could not find the same way we came in, so we decided to leave then try and figure out where we were. Needless to say we got lost. As the shops closed the lights were turned off and the streets and ally ways went dark. I was glad there were three of us! While wandering the streets trying to find our way out of the area we stopped and had a local sandwich called a doner kebab. The meat was lamb and was cooked like gyro, but it is put on a flat roll or sub roll and served with lettuce, tomato and pickles. It was delicious. After wandering a few streets and turning a few corners we thought we ended up back in the grand bazaar. But in fact, we were at the Egyptian bazaar, also known as the spice bazaar. It was getting ready to close, but we found some friendly merchants willing to argue amongst themselves the best way for us to find our way back to the tram. After settling on one way, we bought some Turkish delight from them and headed out. We found the tram stop, but while taking some photos of the local buildings lit up and admiring the Bosphorus in front of us, JoAnne convinced me that we should find our way back to a hammam. We had talked since booking the trip that this is what I wanted to do for my birthday and I would have been disappointed if I didn’t do it.

We stayed on the main streets while walking to find the Cemberlitas hammam. Amazingly it was at the corner of the same street we turned down to enter the grand bazaar earlier in the day but had walked right past it! Once there, Rick decided he didn’t want to do it, so JoAnne and I paid for the basic scrub and massage and went in. The first thing we were given was a box with a scrub mit and a token to tell the workers what we had ordered. Then we were led to an area to take our clothes off and were shown lockers to lock up our stuff and were handed a cloth to wrap ourselves in (called a pestimal) and a pair of plastic sandals to put on our feet. We both chose to leave our underwear on, but that turned out to be a mistake. After disrobing and wrapping ourselves in our cloths, we entered the hot room. This was a large room with a huge flat raised tablet in the middle of the room. The room was quite warm and there were about 2 dozen women, mostly naked, a few wearing panties like us. The Turkish women giving the bathing were of all size and age and were also only dressed in panties. They were all around the tablet and motioned for us to get up on the tablet. We followed what others were doing and laid out our cloths and lied down on them to relax and warm ourselves while waiting our turn. The women working did not speak English and used gestures to communicate what they wanted. So when it was my turn, a woman waved me over and motioned for me to lie on my belly. She poured warm water over me then started to lather and scrub me. This is where I realized it would have been better without panties. She basically pulled them down and pushed them up until they barely were there to do my bath. After lathering, she scrubbed with the mit and did a leg and foot massage. Then she slapped my butt and motioned for me to turn over and repeated the process on my front, massaging my arms and hands this time. Then I flipped over onto my belly again and she filled a cheesecloth bag with soapy water, spun the bag around to fill with air then squeezed it out, showering me with millions of tiny soap bubbles. She massaged my back, had me turn over and repeated it on my front, pouring bowls of warm water over me each time. Then she had me follow her to one of the fountain like sinks on the wall of the room. I sat on the heated floor while she washed my hair and massaged my scalp. After rinsing me off, she pointed me to a small room off the main room that had more of these sinks. There I sat on the warm floor again and continued to pour bowls of warm water over myself to finish rinsing off. After that we wrapped ourselves in dry cloths and went into the cool room to get our bodies back to normal temperature. After some nice cold water and some time to relax and share stories with JoAnne, we got dressed, tipped the ladies and went and met Rick. It was an amazing experience that I would gladly do again! I am so glad JoAnne convinced me to do it after considering heading back to the ship after getting lost. I was soft and shiny and clean for days after that!

We headed back to the ship then, and had a pasta dinner at the all night pasta station, since we had missed dinner. The lights of the modern side of the city were very colorful and the bridge we were anchored near changed colors. We strategized for the next day, that the Blue Mosque opened at 8:30, so we should leave the ship by 8am and get there shortly after opening. Then we would head to the Topkapai Palace to finish our time in Istanbul.

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