Our final day in Istanbul and our last day of vacation

Today was a very very busy day! We started with a nice breakfast at the hotel which was an amazing buffet.  They give associates an amazing price so we were glad we stayed here for breakfast.  The was a real honeycomb with the honey just dripping  off of it for you to use!

 Honey !

 The breakfast buffet

The lights in the restaurant which we thought were cool!

After breakfast we headed to the metro and thought we had great directions.  After getting off and wandering for 45 minutes we finally hopped in a cab to take us to the Topaki Palace.  As soon as we got out of the cab a helpful friendly gentle stuck up a conversation.  He to,d us that the blue mosque would close for prayer from 1230 -230 so we should go there first.  He could tell we were a little hesitant since we had finally just gotten to our destination after wandering aimlessly for way too long.  He offered to walk and show us exactly where it was and where the entrance was.  Now he was being way too nice.  He showed us the line and the to,d us about his carpet store and that when we came out he would wait for us and take us to his carpet store. 

The blue mosque was amazing.  Michelle and I had our head scarves and the guys had the zip on legs for their pants .  Before entering the mosque everyone must take their shoes off.  Once we were all properly attired we entered and it was amazing .  Very hard to describe the tile and size of the mosque.

When we came out our guide/carpet guy was waiting for us.  We did tell him The we really had no intention of buying a carpet and we had very limited time and did it want to waste his or our.  We did offer   His something. Fro hi time. And for beings so helpful but he would not take anything.  He was very nice...

Ok I am supposed to be ready for dinner in 10 minutes and my battery is down to 12% so I have to run.  I will have to finish our day either later or tomorrow in the airport...

Thank you all for following along and I promise I will update and finish the end of our trip tonight!

Dinner in Istanbul

A few months ago Wayne and I watch a show called Chef's table.  It profiles different  chef's and their story.  Once we watch the show I look up the chef and he had a restaurant in Istanbul! So I immediately booked it and told everyone we would be having Italian on our first night in Istanbul.

The restaurant is Ristorante Italia by Massimo Bottura.

http://ristoranteitalia.com.tr/restaurant.php

Our taxi dropped us off at the. Wrong enrage but we eventually found our way to the Eataly Market and inside to the restaurant.  We sat on and outside open area..kind of open..the windows were all open.

The service was exceptional.  We started with a delicious meet and cheese mix that was very tasty.  Nice home made bread and bread sticks as well as olive oil made in Italy specifically for Massimo.

We has some nice Turkish red wine.  We were then served an amuse bouche of a small portion of frozen mozzarella with pesto and a few very small tomatoes.  It was delicious! We then  then moved on to the pasta course.  Peters choice was definitely the winner here and the winner of the night for best dish.  He had homemade ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese and  served with a  ricotta foam.  The foam definitely made the dish.  Michele had Tagliatelle with a ragu sauce, I had tortellini with aged Parmesan cream sauce and Wayne had a seafood risotto. 

Onto entrees.  Peters choice was the tenderloin, Michelle choose another pasta dish of linguine and clams I had the monk fish and Wayne  chose the Bronzino.  All were delicious but I think we expected them to be amazing from the status of the chef and the restaurant and definitely when we got the bill...we were very happy with the food I think just not as blown away as we expected to be. 

We did not have enough room for dessert but we were brought some cream puffs and a shot of grappa to finish our meal.  Wayne was the only one brave enough  to actually finish his grappa.

It was an amazing meal and we were escorted down the private elevator where a taxi was waiting for us....another great day of our vacation comes to an end!

Istanbul...Day 1

Our shipped docked at about 7am and our ride was waiting for us.  We got to the hotel and were able to check right in which is always nice.  The hotel is very modern and very cool. The lights in the hallways are all motion sensor..so when you step out of the elevator on your floor they go from very dim to bright. The whole design of the hotel is very modern.   Our rooms are on the 14th and 20th floor and we have an amazing view of the city!

We dropped off our this and got some directions from the desk and off we went to explore the city.  We headed to the metro  and after the challenge of whereto buy a metro card we were on our way.  The metro was very nice and clean.  We got off and walked along a shopping street with a few stops along the way.  Our destination was the Galata Tower.  When we arrived we decided we needed a quick coffee before heading to the top.


After a nice Turkish coffee we headed to the top.  We felt very lucky when we walked in and saw an elevator! Bonus ! It took us almost to the top.  A few steps and we walked out on to the top area.  The views were amazing! You could walk all the way around and see every side of the city! Definitely worth it.

 

View of the Galata bridge

We then walked across  the Galata bridge where there are lots of restaurants and fisherman all desperate for customers since it is Ramadan a lot of people are fasting and restaurants are empty.  

We played frogger and made our way across the street looking for a quiet spot  for lunch out of the hustle and bustle.  We found a restaurant with a rooftop terrace but chose to sit on the 2nd floor at nice  window  over looking the Bosphous. 

We had a nice lunch with a few appetizers and we each has a Kebap.

Our lunch time view

After lunch we ventured toward the Grand bazaar , in the maze of streets it took us a little while to find but but eventually made it.  The boys were troopers and walked through once with us then decided they should go have a beer and we would go back and shop a little more. When they went to have a beer they were told that is was illegal to drink alcohol I this area, then someone told them to go up to the 3rd floor and they could have a beer.  So up the 3 flights of steps they went and a beer was served to them in a paper cup.

Michelle and I shopped around the bazaar and met back up with the boys after about 45 minutes.

Time to head back to the hotel.  We hopped back on the tram but somehow when we got off and walked to find the metro station we were walking to the wrong station and probably walked an extra 1/2 mile we didn't need too which no one was really in the mood for, but we finally made it back to our hotel .  Time for a nap and shower before dinner later tonight.

Canakkale and our last day on Board!

Today our port was Canakkale.  We were scheduled to be in post for a quick stop today just 830-1230.  When we arrived the water was a little fought so the captain decided not to dock at the port and it posted anchor off shore and tender passengers ashore.  This did not see too over well with the the port authority and they tried to insist we use their tenders.  So the main office was Calling  etc  Those headed for an excursion finally got started about 1 hour later than expected so out departure time was extended until 2pm.

We decided not to go  ashore and just relax,  nap and read and for Michele and nice massage.

Today's departure would be the final sail raising so almost everyone was on deck.  The music played as we set sail and the sails were raised.  As you looked around you could see everyone smiling and just enjoying themselves.  Every time the sails are raised and. we set sail from  port the music plays and everyone  likes to be on deck to witness the departure and especially today.

As we sailed away our cruise director pointed out another so called passenger sailing vessel behind us..yet they did not have one sail was raised.   Once leaving Port we had to navigate through a pretty narrow strait along with freighters and lots of other traffic...I guessing other ship could not handle the challenge.

We had dinner at our or normal 9 pm and the crew all came out into  the dining room and sang we are he world along with everyone else.  The wished us all farewell !

We stayed up late chatting with 2 coup,e that we had met from the UK.  Everyone seemed like old friends by now.

Off to bed ..next up 2 busy days in Istanbul!

Dikili

Dikili

This was perhaps our most relaxing day of the trip..we didn't have an excursion planned and the town is really not a tourist destination. So not much shopping to be done.  We decided to take a walk into Town just to checked it out.

We walked along the shore where there was a small market lots of water front restaurant and some beach area.  We then walked more into town.  You can definitely tell that there are not many tourists here and most of the tourist who may be here are Turkish.  Many people looked at us curiously to look at our clothing our shoes etc.

We decided it was time for a cocktail and it was getting very hot walking the streets.  We went to one of the lovely water front p,aces for a drink and a small snack of course...it had been way too long since I had a piece of pizza so we ordered 2 small pizzas .  They arrived with a variety of toppings.,  some meat, corn, olives.  May have actually been a frozen pizza for for a quick bite it was just fine.

We headed back to the ship for a lot of napping...we found a nice spot on the back of the ship where we all dozed off or read our books.  That is pretty much how the rest of the day progressed.  More napping in our cabins before the captain's dinner tonight.  In the late afternoon we could see that we were sailing into rain.  There was some  lighting out at sea but I. Wild not say we were in a storm.

This would be the 1of 2 nights when the boys would wear the jackets they brought.  We met up in the bar at 8 and the maitre d came to find us to tell us we needed to come to dinner since it was the captains dinner everyone finishes at the same time.  We were seated in a booth for 6 not knowing if 2 other may join us.

About 10 minutes after being seated a party of 4 came in 2 were seated at the table next to us and 2 with us.   We got the 2 children..well not children, 19 and 21 years old.. The sat down  and said hello parents! They were very nice and we had a great dinner with them.  They are from Southern California.  Mackenzie was excited to hear that we were from Philadelphia.  She is considering University of Penn to continue her English lit studies. So I told her all about the city and all the great thing but also how it would be very different from Southern California.  Tanner is studying film at a school in Southern California.  They were really enjoying the trip although there were rally no others their age and you could tell that they appreciated the opportunity to take such a trip and how lucky they were.  They have family in Turkey and will spend 3 weeks in Turkey after the cruise.  They asked a lot about us and how we all met and what we all did.   Michelle gave the Peace Corps pitch...maybe a new recruit..

The capital gave a toast/ speech and talked about the rescue at sea the previous evening.  He apologized the inconvenience and specifically said one person was very upset because of the disturbance but we were saving so done life...we all guessed that person was feeling pretty bad at that
point.

After dinner tonight was the crew and passenger talent show.  It was very funny .  A lot of the crew participated.  Some with actual talent and some being funny.  A few passengers even participated.

Tomorrow will be another relaxing day.  Our time In Port is very short and we do not have an excursion planned so we will likely stay on board and relax.

Some photos of out sailing vessel!

130 am wake up call

130 am wake up call

The morning at about 130 am there was a series a 4 horns and an announcement man overboard all crew report to deck.  What he said was man on board but meant man over board..so Wayne immediately go up and headed to deck to find out who was trying to get on the ship in the middle of the night.  He was joined by about 50 other passengers curious as to what was going on.  Some were very shaken and had their life jackets with them.   Wayne saw 2 of the  guys he normally sees very early in the morning and one joked..we are a little early for sunrise don't you think...

It turned out that there were 2 people in the water that had been spotted.  They were not from our ship and from what we understand they were refugees.  The crew went into a very well orchestrated rescue mission.  The spot lights were shone on the people.  The skiff was dropped into the water and headed toward the two people.  The coast  guard was also called and headed to the area.  Our Crew retrieved the two people and handed them over to the coastguard.  From what we have heard it seemed as thought they had been in the water for a while. 

Everyone returned to bed and we continued on our way..