SATURDAY - OCTOBER 16

Saturday, October 16 – I got up around 6. Yes, on purpose. Dressed and out to find the early coffee station, and outside on deck as we passed through the Dardenelles. Dark but the fortress was lit, and normal city lights along the shore made it a lovely moment. Cold, and occasional rain splatters. There is a real feeling of accomplishment being awake to see the run rise. There is an early breakfast service, and when I came back for the 3^rd cup I found two of our party there – one had gotten up early to go to the gym and the other, a historian, was out to see the fort and the early part of the passage. We chatted for a bit, and then I went to find the library, where we will have Mass, and to see about printing out the homily I wrote last night. Found that I can’t – and even if I pay the extraordinary (dare I say exorbitant?) price for internet use, I can’t use my thumb drive – nothing can be sent up and nothing can be received. In this day and age to advertise that internet is available and then prohibit any transaction is simply not honest advertising. (Grumble. Snort, Fratsis.) It’s not a question of technology – the equipment is here – someone just decided to limit any possibility of a virus or problem by eliminating all service. Ah well.

Let me give you a sample by sharing this morning’s schedule. Early coffee from 6 am. Buffet breakfast (including a waffle station) from 7:30 to 10 AM. 8 AM a walkathon, wake up and stretch exercises at 8:30 AM. Also at the same time a combined service club meeting – Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions. The library opens at 8:30. Port talk for those going ashore at 9:30, children’s activities start at 10 (although to be honest, I have yet to see any children) An origami class at 10:30 and napkin folding at 10:45.  A fashion show at 11 AM – also at the same time, fruit and vegetable carving. 11:30 AM – Bingo. And Greek cookery lessons. Several musical groups start playing at noon, and lunch is from noon until 2 (Tea is from 4 to 5) A special casino session from 12:30 to 2:30, bridge players at 2, team trivia at 2, Greek dance class at 2:30, and Stop the Bus (I have no idea what that is) Happy hours from 10:45 to 11:45 AM and 7:30 to 8:30 PM – buy one, get one free. We are supposed to dock at 4 and there is an afternoon and a separate evening tour. There is a show art 10 – Night at the Movies, music from great films – there’s jazz and disco dancing at one of the lounges, special drink and dancing sessions, and an on deck description of the shore and sights as we approach Istanbul. Now that doesn’t include the usual photo display, the specials for beauty shops and other places. In short, if you’re bored, it’s your own fault!

I can’t afford the Istanbul tours but I am going to go to the meeting to see what I can learn. I will probably head off by myself to explore and do the best I can. The overriding consideration – DON’T MISS THE BOAT!!!!  They did give us a map yesterday, which helps, but it doesn’t have a scale, so one doesn’t know if we’re talking about two miles or twenty.

As I write this I’m sitting in the cabin, looking out the window. Not a porthole – someone figured out that if you don’t have something that opens, you can have a lot larger window – so there is really a very nice view, and since I am on deck 4, I get to see the wake right outside the window. It’s overcast – grey – although just before 9 AM it’s fairly dark. Not necessarily gloomy but not bright. I’m going to head upstairs to pray the morning hours in the office (finding that I could put my breviary on the Kindle has been a GREAT thing) and pop into the on shore meeting.

I went to the meeting – yet another meeting. Long and full of slides and information and I left before it was over. I missed the napkin folding demonstration (rats! But I can buy a book about folding towels, which looks like it could be fun.) and wandered up on the pool deck. The cover is still on the area, and the sky is dark and grey – but there was a pasta station, doing spaghetti or noodles, and different sauces and different things you can add. Being a simple soul, I just had bacon and noodles – and a cold draft – lovely. Back to the stateroom for a little quiet time and then – another meeting, this time with Yanni and our group to finalize our own tour options. I left that one early too since we were supposed to have Mass in the library. By the time the meeting was over, Mass was about 40 minutes late in starting – and we had missed the on deck narration of coming into port. IN fact as we came out of Mass they were making the first announcements about gathering for the afternoon tour.

The regular tour packages had been disrupted because there is a marathon in town on Sunday, and so streets will be closed for much of the day. Even though Turkey is 97% Muslim, their weekend is Saturday and Sunday and Sunday is the official day off. This is a leftover from the 1920’s move to make the country more “modern,” which in those days meant Western. So the “full day” tour starts on Saturday and continues on Sunday. One of our group bought a ticket, but is only interested in going on Sunday, so I got to go on Saturday. Yanni had arranged our own bus and guide, and off we went. I had volunteered to walk with one of the blind people who is traveling alone, and we had a lovely time. The guide is young, named Sammi, but took the college course for guiding, and has been working for four years.

We rode through the streets, in the “Modern” city – on the Asian side. As you probably know, being highly educated and sophisticated readers, Istanbul (formerly Constantinople – I’ll wait if you want a little of the song. Ready?) is a city split in the middle, with Asia on one side and Europe on the other.  The modern side has architecture reminiscent of the worst days of Russian building, but very modern street cards with tracks in the center of the major roads. Traffic was heavy – it was a Saturday afternoon – and people seem to think traffic signals are pretty lights decorating the corner, but fulfilling no particular function. People walk everywhere – anywhere – at any time – and cars are only marginally better. The idea seems to be that you go through the intersection until the actual moment the light actually turns red – and maybe even a little after that. So a car starting immediately on the green runs a real risk of ramming someone sneaking through the last seconds of red.

We went over a bridge leading into the old city, the European side – a long bridge and people were fishing on both sides. Not a few, but side by side on both sides for virtually the whole length of the bridge. Perhaps a hundred or more fisherman doing their thing on a Saturday afternoon. Past mosques and the train station that was the last stop on the famed Orient Express. Through narrow streets and cobblestones and a mix of shops, modern and looking back to earlier years. We got to a spot, set a time to re-gather and off we went, into

the Grand Bazaar, a covered market area of over 4,000 shops, 18 exits and over 30,000 people working there. Large and crowded, very tourist oriented and bargaining is the rule. Lots of fun. And although I did some bargaining, and taught some of the others in our group some of the basics (Hey, remember I had 12 years of living in Nigeria!) I didn’t buy anything. When we gathered, and one of our group had an encounter with a seller who told her that “this very day” his wife had given birth to a son, and so she should buy something to help him celebrate, that he could take something home for his wife, we headed for the spice bazaar. Now along the way we had picked up a new guide, Ahmet, and he is a slick, older professional guide. In the best oriental style. Very good – very taking care of his people – very connected with local merchants and you KNOW there is a kickback going on here. Which is fine, since he provided a good experience.

The spice bazaar, as the name implies, is mostly spices. Some smaller stalls and other things, although we did not see much of it, since his “contacts are the first two shops just inside the entrance we used. We visited a spice shop and sampled spices and Ahmet gave a not very subtle sales pitch. But the spices are fresh and the prices significantly lower than the US. Next door was a candy shop – Turkish delight in a wide variety of flavors (the mint is not to believed!), dried apricots, nuts in several varieties, figs – you get the idea. And again, sales pitch. And again, good value, and lots of our people bought stuff. I resisted – although the aphrodisiac jelly with a plastic figure of a man with a LARGE erect member was hard to resist. Back to the ship for a late supper.

I was on my way into dinner and passed through a lounge where a young lady was playing piano – and as I walked in, she was starting La Donna e mobile. Now I had been very good about resisting things all day long, and I was plumb out of resistance, so I started singing. Lots of applause. Got talking to someone, and the next thing I know, she was playing Libiamo from Traviata. Then Torna a Sorrento, and ultimately O Sole Mio. Well, you know me. It was fun.

Yanni came by and was somewhat surprised. People had talked about my singing, but he had never heard me sing. I had a drink, and then wandered off. (Notice that I never made it to dinner – I’m going to be the first person in a long time to lose weight on a cruise.) Did some reading and then headed to the big lounge for the evening show, “Music from the Movies.”

Now it’s a cruise show, and one does not go in with great expectations. Which was good, Because even scotch could not help. I assume they all think they’re great. The singers have a very flat sound – unfortunately flat meaning both the richness of the tone and the ability to stay on pitch. The girls are tall, the men agile, the singers mildly painful and the choreography uninspired. The costumes were lovely – but even the creation of the show was disappointing. There is great movie music – much of which was totally ignored. On a screen behind the stage, clips from a film would be shown and on stage, a singer with a song remotely connected to the show (for the film “Amadeus,” a rock song the refrain of which – and virtually the only understandable lyric – was the word “Amadeus,” sung over and over and over and so on.) The show went about 40 minutes – there were times it seemed longer. Where I come from, there are a lot of really talented young performers who are looking for work, and usually the cruise shows can draw on some real talent. Doesn’t seem to be the case here. I will go to a couple of other shows, just to see – but this was a yawn. Loud – but I even dozed a little at the end. If I were casting, there was one young lady with a light baritone voice I would ask back, just to see if she could do anything else – but the right would have their resumes filed in the circular file.

At that point I was ready for bed – or at least quiet. I found an old movie on tv – Victoria and John Brown – and I dozed through some of that and crash around midnight.