September 21, 2014
We met Pam and Paul for breakfast in the Dining Room and
then, together, we went to the Celebrity Theater to get our excursion stickers,
so that we could be on the same bus. This morning’s temperature was 18 C with a
high of 24 C and the sky was overcast. We were on the bus by 9:40 driving to Sozopol,
a 30 minute drive from Burgas. In Sozopol, we visited the Archaeological Museum
with artifacts as old as 4th century B.C., where our guide,
Alexander, explained that some of the vessels on display were used to transport
olive oil and other liquids which shaped with points on the bottom, so that the
first layer of vessels could be secured in sand in cargo areas and then the
next layer fitted in the “V” created and so on for further layers then the
cargo would not shift in bad weather and cause the ship to sink. Next we took a
walking tour through the older part of Sozopol and visited the "Holy
Virgin" church, built during the Turkish occupation in the 13th
century church. It contained beautiful 14th century paintings in the
panels of richly carved wood, which Alexander explained were about 200 years
ahead of Renaissance artists. The Bulgarian
Christian artists were not allowed to continue their craft once the Turks
conquered the Bulgarian region. It was
not until the western Europe Renaissance that the European artists caught up to
the painting techniques of the old Bulgarian Christian artists used in Eastern
Orthodox churches. We continued our stroll to the site of the original 9th
century location of the church of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, where ruins of a
7th century church and a 3rd century Roman Bath have been
excavated in the neighbouring lot. During some free time, we saw a replica of
the ancient 8 or 10 oared fishing boats used in this region of the Black Sea.
Then we returned by bus to Burgas. We walked several blocks through the old
town of Burgas to the Ethnological Museum, where we saw the ethnic costumes of
19th century Bulgarian villages and some information about the past
cultural traditions. Finally we walked to an 19th century church, where
a wedding was taking place and where we each took a quick look through the open
doors of this Eastern Orthodox Christian church which had the alter made of
stone. We returned to the ship at 2:30
ready for lunch. In Burgas, we did not see one Internet café as we wandered the
streets and decided that we would buy some Internet connection on the ship and
not bother to look for access when we were visiting the different countries. We danced for 20 minutes before our 6 p.m.
dinner seating. We ate with the same table mates. For dinner we started with
Caprese Salad followed by soup either Tomato & Pasta or Buutternut Squash.
The entrees we chose were boneless lamb shank wrapped in phyllo pastry or white
fish with vegetables. Finally the dessert that the whole table chose Tiramisu,
which was delicious. We danced a little after dinner before going to see
juggler, Pete Matthews, for his 8:30 show in the Celebrity Theater. Then we
wandered to the shops section, which were closed since the ship is still in
port. The casino was closed for the same reason. We decided to forego the
Karaoke in the Reflections Lounge, up on deck 11. We stopped at the coffee bar
before returning to the stateroom for the night.
September 20, 2014
Claire was up when
the first call to Muslim prayer was shouted via loud speakers from the nearby
mosque at 5:45 a.m., after which sleep was ended and the sightseeing magazines
in the room provided a quiet activity until waking Larry at 7:30. Within half
an hour, we were on the hotel patio overlooking the Bosphorus Strait, and with
its freighter, tour boat and pleasure craft traffic. The sky had some clouds
and the temperature was about 19 C. The breakfast buffet had plenty of choices
– five juices, a dozen kinds of buns and breads, yogurts, cereals, an olive
tray, cucumbers slices, tomato slices, zucchini wedges, kiwi fruit, honeydew
melon slices, orange slices, grapefruit slices, a variety of cheeses and cold
meats, coffee and dozen choices of teas, a hot section of scrambled eggs,
bacons strips, cubed potatoes, steamed cherry tomatoes, breaded chickpea balls,
sautéed mushrooms, warm chunky tomato sauce, bread for toasting and a selection
of jams and jellies, plus the best part of all - - a dozen different kinds of Turkish Delight
which were delicious! Well fed, we packed our luggage to be ready for the noon
checkout and then went exploring through a nearby residential neighbourhood (to
the northwest of our hotel) of three to six storey apartment buildings with
some having shops on the ground floor, for an hour covering 3.5 km including a
steep hill climb up 152 steps and then down the hill on the next street. Next
we headed west on Ciragan Road to find the clock tower near the 19th
century palace overlooking the Bosphorus Strait and across from the Molla
Celebi Cami mosque. We walked faster and
walked the 4 km round trip in less than an hour, getting back in time to check-out
by noon. We surpassed our goal of 10,000
steps for today. We waited in the lobby for
Murat and the driver to collect us and Pam and Paul to go to the dock to board
the ship by 1:30. They were 15 minutes
early and the four of us were eager to pile into the mini-bus. Embarkation was
well organized. We had dropped off the
luggage at the drop off spot to be transferred to the stateroom later in the
afternoon, registered, had our Sea Pass card (stateroom “Key”), drunk our
welcome aboard Mamosa and were eating lunch in the Oceanview Cafe within 45
minutes, about half the time of the boarding process of our last cruise. When we went to the stateroom on the starboard
side of the ship, one suitcase had arrived and the other came about two hours
later, again better service than the last cruise. We attended a presentation of
the land excursions for the next three days, and a lifeboat drill which is
mandatory for all passengers before the ship sail away at 5 p.m., on schedule.
We took the 9 flights of stairs to above the pool deck to take pictures of our
hotel as we passed it as well as the old forts that guarded the narrowest part
of the Bosphorus Strait in the past. We
went under a long suspension bridge with just a four meter clearance. We will pass under it again next Saturday on
the way to the Aegean Sea. We bumped into Pam and Paul and arranged to meet
them for breakfast tomorrow, as they are going on the same excursion. Our
dining time is 6 p.m. We managed to dance a Cha-cha to the live music of the three-piece
Ocean Band, before going to the dining and finding our table all the way at the
stern of the ships beside windows. We
were joined by Norm and Sophia from Maryland, USA and Trish, Kevin, Eric and
Lynn from Yorkshire, England. All were
interesting dinner mates. For dinner, Larry and I ordered a glass of wine, then
we both ordered as appetizer - cold
roasted beets and feta cheese; entrée –seared salmon with olives, on mashed
potatoes and cooked zucchini and other squashes, cubed and for dessert - Larry
had a crepe stuffed with blueberries and I had Dolce de Leche custard. We
skipped the show featuring a comedian and danced in the Rendez-vous Lounge to
the 50s and 60s band Emilie and the Nightcaps which besides Swing and Fox trot
also played tunes with Rumba and Cha-cha rhythms. By 10, we headed for the room
to organize for our excursion to Burgas, Bulgaria on Sunday.
September 19, 2014
We saw a lovely sunrise as we were flying above the entrance to the Baltic Sea. We arrived in Istanbul about 9:15 a.m. on overnight flight from Toronto. Istanbul Passport Control checked our passports and Turkish Visas and stamped the passports, before we collected our luggage from one of 10 carousels and breezed through the “Nothing to Declare” line for Turkish Customs. Our guide, Murat, was waiting at the airport to pick up us and another couple then took us to the Radisson Blu Bosphorus, on the European side of Istanbul, which overlooks the Bosphorus Strait, several kilometers north of the cruise port. On our way to the hotel, we saw that the Celebrity Reflection was in port. After freshening up, we decided to join the other couple, Pam and Paul, to engage the services of our guide and driver for some afternoon sightseeing. Murat and his driver arrived at 12:15 p.m. to start our excursion to the old city which still has remnants of its wall. Today, greater Istanbul has a population of over 17 million people (17% of country’s population) all in less than 4% of its area. On the way, we drove along the road bordering the Bosphorus Strait and saw the Celebrity Constellation heading to port. We passed the Suleyman Mosque (built between 1550-1557), the Istanbul train station (last stop for the Orient Express train & first place of the Istanbul to Bagdad route), the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia en route. Our first stop was the Hippodrome plaza. Over 2000 years ago, the Hippodrome was where chariot races were held. We saw an obelisk from Egypt, created in 332 A.D., that was originally standing with 3 others in Aswan, Egypt. One of the other obelisks is in Washington, D.C. on the Mall. We also saw the German fountain, designed in neo-Byzantine gazebo-style, which Wilhelm II of Germany presented to the Sultan in 1901. We saw the exterior of the Blue Mosque as we walked to Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque in the 16th century and is now a museum, being restored to its original interior splendor. Hagia Sophia’s origins date back to 532 A.D. with the conquest of the Roman city by the Turks. It was renamed Constantinople after the conquering warrior. We were able to photograph the beautiful mosaics on the walls and dome, now restored, that as a mosque, had been plastered over for nearly 500 years. We climbed uphill to the gallery by a series of narrow switchback tunnels to the gallery to have a closer look at the frescoes and mosaics and a view of the main floor. Next we walked about 700 metres, to the Topkapi Palace, now a museum, where the sultans lived with their harems, families and political and domestic staff. The ancient kitchens produced meals for over 4,000 people each day. The kitchens have been renovated with displays of the huge caldrons used to prepare food as well as marble tables used in the pastry preparation area. In its treasury, were items created from gold, silver and copper with and precious stones of inestimable value amassed during the time of the sultans. Even the brooch containing an 86 karat diamond called the Spoonmaker Diamond. Next, we viewed a beautiful wing of rooms with hand painted blue and white tiled walls and ceilings before leaving the grounds Our final stop after a short drive was the Spice Market. Due to traffic snarls, we left the mini bus and were guided by Murat and walked 4 blocks of ancient streets with cafes and shops and sampled a doner between us and Pam. At the Spice Market with its tightly packed stalls of spices, Turkish Delight candy, jewellery, china and clothing stalls, we sampled Turkish Delight candy. At 4 o’clock on a Friday, it was teeming with people. Our tour finished and we found the minibus several blocks away, thank goodness for cell phones and were back to the hotel by 5:30. The temperature was about 25 C and the sky partly cloudy. After a quick nap, we left the hotel to explore the area for local restaurants and hit the jackpot of many outdoor cafes, just a five minute walk from the hotel which was overlooking the Bosphorus Straits. After a leisurely two hour supper of a sample platter of chicken and beef kebobs, ground lamb patties, baked chicken pieces with fries and rice. We returned to the hotel before 9, updated the blog, but ran out of battery power just before we were going to upload the blog and did not have a voltage converter to recharge the battery. We must wait for recharging on the ship. We decided to call it a day about ten, 32 hours since we woke for the flight to Istanbul.
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