Sailed into Istanbul during the early hours this morning and were treated to a great sunrise view of the European side with the Palace, Blue Mosque and St Sofia Church (so far being on the port side of the ship has been great). We had originally planned an organized tour of the city but decided a few weeks ago to cancel it as the major sites are very close to each other. We met up with a girl Jo had met in the hot tub and her family (husband and parents) and decided on the spot to try to get a taxi tour with them from the docks. We organized two cabs @ 100 euros each for the day and off we went. While Jo and I enjoyed the mosque and church the kids showed signs of over-culture and we decided to skip the cistern and go straight to the bazaar. Unfortunately in cliched Turkish style one of our cab drivers flaked on us and switched himself for another guy who couldn't speak any English. Our US friends ditched him and paid only half the originally agreed fare (for half the tour) but we stayed with our guy who was half decent. The bazaar was great fun and Jo picked up a beautiful table throw for a good price although I think my bargaining skills need some work (being tight for time didn't help).
We got back to the boat and enjoyed some chill time by one of the pools while the rest of the passengers returned slowly from the city. I've tried out the time lapse feature on our new video camera for departure, looking forward to seeing what that looks like later. Tomorrow we have a late arrival into Mykonos at midday so we've let the kids off the leash tonight and not set a bedtime, let 'em (and us) sleep in before hitting the beach and maybe some snorkeling. Jo and I are dressing to the nines for dinner with Jazz joining us. Then a bar and finally a movie under the stars, U2 concert, to finish us off is the plan.
Andy, out.
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