Istanbul - From Wyona and Greg

Istanbul at Grande Marche

Istanbul at Harbour

Istanbul Harbour

Istanbul Pomegranate Drink

Istanbul Pomegranate Drink Cart

Suck along in Instanbul

Making the suck drink

A few days ago we left Istanbul and travelled through the Bosphorus Straits, the journey taking two hours before we reached the Black Sea.

We left Istanbul on Oct. 02, 2014 and headed to Bourgas Bulgaria.

After the muster drill, Greg beelined to the Oceanview café where we could have an outside back of the ship view of the two hour trip through the Bosphorus Straits.

It was indeed a beauty. We passed under two bridges, clearing the first bridge by only 4 meters. Istanbul is built on mountainous terrain so the ship meanders between the mountains with houses reaching to the top of every mountain.

The passageway was, as Zach said when we were doing Alaska, this is just like Shuswap. Only this was different, it was Turkey where every bit of buildable land has a structure on it. Our second day was in Bourgas, Bulgaria. Where were you Lurene? We needed your Bulgarian skills. Greg kept looking for landmarks and the baking goods of Sophia, Bulgaria since that is where you trained him. Bulgaria was very flat in comparison to Turkey.

Burgas had beautiful paved walkways and if you went in behind the buildings you could get a glimpse of how the people really lived.

Our next stop was Varna, Bulgaria. At 8 a.m. the captain of the ship was in our room over the loudspeaker telling us that the winds/gales were too high so the ship could not tender us into the port because it was not safe. Therefore, we saw Varna from afar on the ships’ decks.

FLASH!!!!!

We are watching the bombing of Istanbul on TV at the present time. We are going past Istanbul through the Bosphorus Straits and landing in Istanbul four days later. What will happen to us? Where will our ship take us?

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Now we are back in Istanbul. Bombs were on the news in one of the squares. Greg is out taking in the last of Istanbul and I am packing and using up internet.

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One post! In Istanbul from our apartment.

We thouroughly enjoyed our hotel in Istanbul. It was a half price deal a few weeks before we got there. The front of our hotel. Istnabl.aparvie

We had a beautiful view of the harbor.

There was a small atrium in the middle of the apartment which was outside and went up five floors. This vine grew all the way to the top. I tried to lift it off of the cement but the vine had attached itself so secure that it would not move. There were places where it had been moved previously, but marks were left where it had attached itself.

Up, up, up it went to the fifth floor and the sky.

From our apartment you could see into the uninhabited building across the way. The top floor had a small bedroom and the other room had the sink, toilet and open terrace.

All of the building was uninhabited. You can see how small the flats are.

The streets below were busy from morning until after midnight. There was a lot of car horn honking.

One floor up from us was the breakfast room which had an outside terrace. I think almost every building in Istanbul has a terrace built on the roof.

There always comes a time when one has to leave. Just getting ready for the taxi pick-up to the port.

We woke up one morning to this lovely local market below us. Trucks brought in the goods for the market the evening before. Some stalls were still setting up at 11:00 a.m. the next day and stayed up until after dusk, 9:00 p.m. No hurry.

Here is the breakfast terrace a few buildings over from us.

Wyona