We had a limo pick us up at 4:00am to take us to the airport and arrived in Istanbul a mere 22 hours later.
Someone suggested staying up all night the night before so we would be tired for the flight. Unfortunatly I realized too late that it was a BAD idea. Needless to say I didn't get any sleep on the plane (OK maybe an hour or two of broken sleep) On past cruises that we have taken with Lordco we spend a few days in the city, then board the boat, but this time we got on the cruise ship right away. By the time we actually got to the ship it was 3:00 in the afternoon (5am vancouver time), so 25 hours of travelling.
When you board the ship they make you take an embarkation keepsake picture. I was so tired and grumpy and DONE by the point that I almost said some bad words to the photographer (even though I know it was not his fault) That picture was not a keeper!!!!
The next day was a full day in Istanbul, so we set out in a cab with friends of ours, Scott and Jacquie. (I love these cruises because there is so many people that we know on them, and new people we get to know. We end up hanging around most of the days with our group that we have formed over the years, but it's nice to have so many other people that you know along to.) We went to the Blue Mosque.
They made the boys cover their legs with Wraps because you are not supposed to have your knees showing. It was amazing in there.
After the Mosque we walked around town and went to a big spice market there. All of the travel guides said you had to go there. It was neat, but all the stalls had the same things.
Then we decided to walk back to the cruise ship rather than taking a cab....... we took a wrong turn and ended up walking Halfway around the city. I think my stepcounter said we walked 5 miles before noon that day. Too bad that was the most exercise I got all trip!!!
Finally back to the ship............
for some dancing, woo woo
The next day we sailed to Izmir, Turkey. There is a huge ancient city called Ephesus about an hour away....... or half an hour if you decide to forgo the organized tours and find your own way there in a taxi, which has no seatbelts and tries to pass every vehicle on the road. There was times when I wasn't sure if we were actually going to make through that trip.
When we went to hire the cabs, they wanted to squeeze our party of 8 into one taxi..... "it's OK we will just put these plastic stools in the trunk for people to sit on" umm no THANKS!!!!!!! We chose to take two taxis.
On the way back we made sure we dug out our seatbelts from under the seats......with the taxi driver laughing at us.
Some of the landscape there looked like we were back home driving up to the interior.
This is Ephesus. It amazing how old everything is!!
And this is the toilet house. Our guide told us that the men would come here to spend time with their friends in the mornings...... nice bonding time. (The guy in the white in the background is sitting on one of the toilets.)
We also visited The house of Virgin Mary. I didn't get any pictures here.
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To be continued..................
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