Day 7 Istanbul

We had arrived in Istanbul by the time we were up. So we met up for a more relaxed breakfast and then headed off to see the sights of Istanbul.  We had decided not to worry with a tour as the main city was close to the port.  We took a taxi (TAKSI), and were soon at the Spice Market section of the Grand Bazaar.  Everything looked so fresh and smelt delicious.  There were locals doing their shopping.  A vendor selling freshly squeezed pomegranate juice from a large hand cart.  Huge bags of goodness only knows what, were being transported by large hand carts.  It would take three or four men to heave the bags onto the carts and then one man would push the cart along.  With the block pavement it must have been very difficult.

We had a bit of trouble finding the main section of the market and so after a bit of hand gestures we managed to purchase a map.  If only the streets that were named matched the ones that were named on the map.  Oh well….we felt that we at least knew the correct direction to head, asked a few people, and one chap guessed we were looking for the Grand Bazaar and pointed around the corner.

It was very colourful, lots of jewellery stores, leather bags coats, carpets and mats and just about any spice or dried fruit you could name were also in the Grand Bazaar.

We walked in the direction of the Blue Mosque.  We saw in a café window a delicious looking pastry dish being made, so in we went.  Layers of filo pastry wrapped around either meat, cheese, or spinach – cooked and then cut into bit size pieces.  It was really tasty.  A cup of tea and coffee and we were ready to walk on.

Unfortunately by the time we found the Blue Mosque it was closed for prayer. Julee and Lindsay had seen it before and Den and I were happy to just see it from the outside.

We then caught a tram back to the ship.  That was an adventure.  The tram arrived, it seemed totally packed and yet the four of us and a number of others all squashed in.  We had 5 stops until ours.  We had been told the name of the station which we were looking for on the guide in the tram.  Two Turkish men near us started smiling about our pronunciation of the name.  I heard him say Italiano…’No we are Australian’ I said….they were very friendly and helpful and with a bit of charades we managed to convey that we were from the ship.  They waved us farewell as we squeezed and pushed our way off the tram.

It was great fun once it was over, but scary when you didn’t know if you would manage to get off the tram before it carried on down the track.

Tonight we head to Dubrovnik.  We will sail through the Straits of Bosphorus as well as the Straits of Dardanelles.  At approx. 6pm we will be sailing past Gallipoli and I hope to catch a glimpse of Anzac Cove.

Tomorrow is a day at sea, and Saturday we will arrive in Dubrovnik.