Now I Can Relax!

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Geo: 41.0245, 28.9881

Wow! What a kind day for me!!! Finally the security of the ship to return to and thank God no more lugging that suitcase up and down stairs. I swear, Al has muscles he never had before and now I can climb stairs almost as good as normal people from all the practice.

The day started with some real food that I finally recognized. We decided that since we had one more day in Istanbul and kinda new our way around the tram system that we would take the tram to the Grand Bazaar and Egyptian spice market. There is no way to really describe the sites and the smells of this area. Open markets full of 1000's of people haggling over products to buy and the pungent smell of people and spices mixed together. It's interesting to say the least. Many sellers approached us, especially the rug salesmen. The manger at the last hotel had told us to say when approached that we were Bulgarian and they would leave us alone. I tried it and it worked for me as they said, "Bulgarian Yaki Yaki", so not quite sure just what that meant in his language but it worked. Hahahahah.

We enjoyed our time there haggling with them for the prices and making deals. We took a very very crowded tram back to the ship area and boarded the ship again because we had a life boat muster in late afternoon....This is where Queenie, if on board, would start to panic. You are placed in front of your life boat, women in front of men and you're showed how to put on your life jacket, how to board your life boat and roll call for your assigned area. All in all a big ordeal if something were to go wrong at sea. We are on our way now out to sea so Mykonos, Greece supposes to be very hot..Israel is still kinda up in the air but no word on stopping our visit but I personally saw U.N ships positioning in the Mediterranean going past us towards Turkish waters.

We had a nice dinner with 4 other people and light conversation of our hippy trek across Europe. It's fun, to say the least, to recant what had happened to us. We walked around the ship for a while and returned to our cabin, greeted with the towel animal of the day.....Stingray. more to come tomorrow...Hope all is well with everyone one and,of course, my beloved animals whom Im sure by now are pissed at me for being gone for soooooo long.

just Karen

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Photos

Grand Bazaar
Mom exploring. There are 52 blocks here with 4000 shops.

Grand Bazaar
Those plates will never make home!

On the Tram
Mom is riding on the tram, returning to the ship from the the Grand Bazaar. These are packed full all the time. Watch for pickpockets but we never had any issues here. Just a good opportunity.

Getting some juice outside the Grand Bazaar.
It was hot.

Buying a ticket on the Istanbul tram
Crowded but an easy way to get around town.