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Venice to Turkey 14, Part 2

Day 13, Istanbul, May 17, Part 2

We are quoted €8 round trip to the river boat and think it’s a bargain. So we get in the taxi and happily ride the 15 minutes to the boat. We get a view of the Galata Tower on the way. This Tower will become more important later in our vacation!

Once there, it takes 15-20 minutes to find the correct boat. It turns out the boat wasn’t back from a previous cruise until the last minute. We find the boat and board it right as sunset was beginning. We get underway and begin capturing photos of the city as it lights up at night. The cruise lasts 2 hours and the views are great! We even pass by our cruise ship as we start the tour! And yes, those are random rainstorms you see in the cloud formations!

Continuing on, we watch as the city wakes up at night. A lot of the passengers on the cruise go to the lower lever because it is enclosed and the crew serves them tea and biscuits. I opt to stay up top and keep my camera entertained.

We finish the cruise and are glad to get off the water for it is very chilly. Luckily, we dressed appropriately. As we wait for our taxi driver, suddenly The Call To Prayer erupts from loudspeakers all around us! It seems that we are surrounded by approximately 6 mosques, all broadcasting simultaneously! We find our taxi driver and go back to the ship. I ask him for €10 change from the €20 note I hand him and he looks at me strangely.

He informs me the fare is €80, not €8. I object and insist we were quoted €8. He either calls his boss or pretends to and the price drops to €50. Still not acceptable, I argue the price again. We settle on €40 round trip and I cave in. So beware of scams like this and possibly get your quote in writing.

We get back on the ship and get most of our packing done as we get off the ship in the morning.

Good night everyone!

Venice to Turkey 14

Day 14, Istanbul, May 17, Part 1

We arrive in Istanbul today. We don’t dock until noon. The restaurants are all jam packed as everyone sleeps in like we do. So we have what will likely be our last restaurant breakfast.

Then we get off the ship shortly after the ship opens the gangway. We have to walk downstairs through tunnels to get out. The ship has provided special paperwork to help us get out and back into the port.

We find the HOHO Bus as soon as we get out and buy 2 tickets. So today we get the nickel tour of Istanbul. We get off at the Blue Mosque and start to look around.

A local Guide, JJ, approaches us and offers his services and we let him. JJ takes us around and tells us about the mosque. He even leads us through the crowd and shows us how to cut the line without getting into trouble. We check the dress code and Elee buys a shawl to abide by the rules.

The Blue Mosque is spectacular as you will see in the photos. It was built in 1609.

We finish our visit and JJ finds us outside. He takes us to a restaurant area to get a bite to eat when we realize that we have to get back on the bus as it’s getting late. JJ helps us get back to the bus stop quickly and we bid him goodbye as I slip him a €10 note. He was worth it!

Traffic in Istanbul is gnarly and it takes quite some time for the bus to get us back to the port. Once there, we have to walk over a mile through security and tunnels to get back on the ship.

It’s 6 PM by the time we get on the ship. We go online and book a night trip we noticed a couple weeks ago. It turns out there are night river cruises available for a meager €12 each.

We grab a bite to eat in the buffet and head back out to the taxi stand after walking that mile plus to get out. See the next Post to see the trip!

Venice to Turkey 13

Day 13 Thessaloniki, May 16

We had a ships tour scheduled today that we managed to cancel at the last minute in lieu of riding the HOHO Bus and doing our own thing. We have been less than impressed with the ships tours as their organization is somewhat lacking.

So we have a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant and get off the ship around 9:30 AM. We see the HOHO Buses right in the taxi area. How convenient!

We pay €18 for the bus and board it right in front of the ship. It takes us around the city, stopping at all the ancient buildings and we get off at the top at the Fortress of 7 Towers, or the Heptapyrgion, an old castle. It actually had 10 towers, and we never find why it is called 7 Towers. Situated at the highest point of the city within the Situated at the highest point of the city within the historic Ano Poli (Upper Town), the fortress offers panoramic views of Thessaloniki, the Aegean Sea, and on clear days, Mount Olympus days, Mount Olympus. We don’t spot the Mount.

Walking around the ruins keeps our cameras engaged and we marvel at the vistas. We walk back down to the bus stop and ride for a bit more. We get off at the Rotunda and the Arch and entertain our cameras once more.

We choose to get a bite of lunch here and have a tomato and cheese dish along with an eggplant dish. Wash that down with some local beer and wine and life is good! More street art and graffiti are everywhere.

While we eat, we watch the HOHO Buses come every 15 minutes. So we time our finishing eating a couple minutes before the bus comes.

We step over to the bus stop and wait. And wait. And wait some more. A half hour later another HOHO Bus comes and accepts our tickets. There is a White Tower that we would like to see but it means we will have to ride the bus two more times. So when we get back to the stop at the ship, we opt to just get off.

Back on the ship, we get back in shipboard mode and begin by relaxing in our stateroom. We visit with Patrick and Sue from the west coast of Ireland in Palomar Restaurant during dinner. Fun chat!

Tried to get seats for “The Prom” in the theater tonight but it was standing room only. We stood and watched for a short while but sitting down has a real value. So back to our stateroom it is to catch a movie. While watching the movie, I felt a bit of movement so I looked out the window and there are two meter seas! Yay!

Venice to Turkey 12

Day 12 Kusadasi, May 15

We’re up at 6 AM today for an off ship tour of Ephesus (pronounced effasus) in Kusadasi (pronounced koosh-ahdahsa). Upon finding our tour guide, we are pleased to find it is a small private tour with only 6 people. We had expected a full tour bus of 40-50 people. Our tour guide, Begu (pronounced beg-goo) is cheerful and funny. We are in the Izmir Province of Turkey today.

Today’s tour is to Ephesus, an ancient site of biblical notoriety. Begu gives us lots of historical data of the area and is very entertaining while he does it. We chat a lot in between historical bits and I tell Begu that I make Fruit Wine. “You make Fruit Wine?” He asked excitedly! So he told me he has a friend that has Fruit Wines and at the end of the day’s tour he leads me to a vendor booth and I am given a tasting of about a dozen fruit wines and I purchase a bottle of Black Mulberry Wine! How do you like how they spell the word ‘taxi’? Phonetically correct, I would say!

Here, in Ephesus, like in Rhodes, there is a building built over an important set of ruins under current excavation at the Temple of Hadrian. Temple rooms, living accommodations and important Frescoes and tile art on floors and walls help tell the story of living thousands of years ago! Several signs in the photos to come give more accurate info on the place.

Moving on out of the Temple of Hadrian, an interesting bug points its way down the 90 irregular steps towards the Library of Celsus. The Library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, located near the modern town of Selçuk, in the İzmir Province of western Turkey. The building was commissioned by a consul of the Roman Empire, Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus, as a funerary monument for his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, and completed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

The Library of Celsus is considered an architectural marvel, and is one of the few remaining examples of great libraries of the ancient world located in the Roman Empire. It was the third-largest library in the Greco-Roman world behind only those of Alexandria and Pergamum, and is believed to have held around 12,000 scrolls. Celsus is buried in a crypt beneath the library in a decorated marble sarcophagus. The interior measured roughly 180 square meters (2,000 square feet).

The interior of the library and its contents were destroyed in a fire that resulted either from an earthquake or a Gothic invasion in 262 CE and the façade by an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century. It lay in ruins for centuries until the façade was re-erected by archaeologists between 1970 and 1978.

The Ichthys Wheel (or Christ Wheel) (last photo in this next group) is an ancient, cryptic Christian symbol from the 2nd to 4th centuries. It was created by superimposing the five Greek letters of Ichthys—the word for fish and an acronym for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior”. When overlapped, these letters form an eight-spoked wheel.

The detail in the stone are extraordinary even in the ceilings!

Then we come to the Grand Theater of Ephesus. It is situated just a short walk up Marble Street from the Library of Celsus. Capable of holding up to 25,000 spectators, it was one of the largest in Asia Minor. Construction began in the Hellenistic period (around 250 BC) and it was vastly expanded by the Romans. Beyond theatrical performances and concerts, the space was used for gladiator games and political, social, and religious gatherings. It is the spring and Turkish Red Poppies grow everywhere!

Next we visit a rug factory where weavers spend eight to sixteen months weaving each rug. The colors and designs are fantastic and I’m sorry that photos were not one of my chosen things to do here. Pictured are silkworm cocoons being rolled onto spools. Each cocoon produces about a mile of thread each!

Back on the ship in time for trivia games in Penrose Bar. Tonight we have dinner at the Local Bar. Fish and chips and bar food fits the bill. Then to the theater to see ‘Showtime: Burn the Floor’, a dance cabaret. Now it’s off to bed.

Venice to Turkey 11

Day 11, The Island of Rhodes, May 14

Leisurely breakfast in the restaurant this morning. Not in any particular hurry. We have until 4:30 to get back to the ship. We get off at 8:45ish. About 50 meters away from the ship is the Hop On Hop Off Bus. We get on and there are no available seats.

So we get off at the next stop and walk around for an hour until the bus comes back. We walk around and find a farmer’s market next to the Old Town Wall. We walk in to Old Town and cars and bikes drive in and out on the same medieval road. We walk back to the bus stop and reboard. There are a couple seats up top where we like to sit. There is only one bus, and the bus schedule has precise arrival times for each stop. A couple stops later, we arrive at the Acropolis (remember, ‘Acropolis only means ‘Top of the City or Hill’) and a lot of people get off. So now we get to pick our preferred seats.

We ride the entire loop this time and get off at the Acropolis the next time. We walk around the Acropolis and check out the ruins of what appears to be Olympic arenas and the Temple of Apollo Pythios.

We walk down and find our way through the town to a bus stop. We stop in the heat for a couple glasses of cold white wine and some interesting snacks. The driver of the only bus recognizes us by this time and gives me a fist bump. We ride the bus to the entrance to Old Town and get off. We enter the walls of the old city and find it is filled with chatchkey vendors. We do walk around and find a couple of souvenirs to buy.

Now our legs and feet are really tired and we find our way out and back to the ship. Joannaline, our waitress in Hudson’s tonight, AKA ‘Sexy Anytime’ is quite the character! So we also get a few shots off the ship and kick back for the evening.