October 2, 2014

We were up on Deck 10 having breakfast by 6 a.m. to be sure we ate before the buffet restaurant was too busy.  Since we were not taking a Celebrity airport transfer, we did not have to leave our luggage in the hall last night for pickup to be taken to the warehouse on the pier and then as each bus was to be escorted, going to the warehouse and picking up our luggage to take to the bus.  Our transfer was arranged for 7:30 this morning, but we needed to be off the ship by 7, when the bus transfer passengers stated to disembark. Since there were still Internet minutes from the ship that we could use on the dock we emailed our Istanbul contact, Murat, to tell him that we and Pam & Paul would be waiting at the arranged spot at 7:30 and he replied that the driver was en route.  It was a mild morning about 18 C, a bit of dark cloud but also blue sky and very little wind.  It was interesting watching the big buses maneuvering into place.  By 7:25 all our bags were loaded into the minivan and it was less than 30 minutes to get to the airport. The driver handed his cell phone to Paul who spoke to Murat that we were on our way to the airport. There was a slight sprinkling of rain as we approached the departure drop off zone.  The traffic heading into the Istanbul city center was almost bumper to bumper.  Once inside Araturk International Airport we immediately had to go through a security check, then had to find the Air Canada counter way down to the left near the Atlas Air area.  Check in went smoothly, there were only a few people ahead of us, we even had our Toronto boarding pass. Next, it was back in line for passport control.  We have four stamps for Turkey in our passports. Finally we went through another security check and were in the departure area, 35 minutes since we were dropped off and more than two hours to await the plane.  We had to watch the departure board since a gate had not been assigned to our plane when we checked in.  We walked around the departure halls and found the Food Court which had a Burger King. We checked the departure board and saw that the gate was posted and went there to wait.  The process is different at Araturk airport.  As you enter the gate lounge your passport is checked and the boarding pass is torn leaving you just the stub, then you wait for boarding.  There was a 20 minute delay to balance the cargo hold and then we were advised that due to a strong jet stream, the plane would be taking a route a bit further north over the North Sea and Iceland then over Greenland and Labrador.  This holdup caused further delay in arrival to Toronto. Within an hour of taking off, a hot meal was served (just after noon Istanbul time or 5 a.m. in Toronto), then some passengers tried to sleep.  About mid-flight a snack of a small cheese or turkey bun with pretzels and juices, or water was served, then about 2 hours before landing in Toronto (about 8 p.m. in Istanbul or 1 p.m. in Toronto) another hot meal was served.  As the plane descended to Toronto, it was announced that passengers on certain flights had been rescheduled to later flights, since there was not enough time to go through Customs or to make their connecting flights. We were approaching the gate in Toronto at 3:40 p.m. (or 10:40 p.m. in Istanbul) then we went to Customs, collected our luggage, turned in our declaration, walked for 10 minutes to get the area where we could drop off our baggage for our connecting flight. It took one hour since we had got off the plane to this point. Our original flight had already taken off and we were given boarding passwes for the new flight to Winnipeg. However, we came to a complete standstill in a security line of 20 people for 10 minutes, and another 20 minutes to get through the line. The staff was just painfully slow. But we finally made into the departure gates area just after 5 and stopped at the Tim Hortons kiosk for Iced Cappuccinos, then went to the departure gate and composed some of the blog before our rearranged flight left.  At 9:30 we were home to a light rain, some wind and a temperature of 11C.

Our journey has ended.

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October 1, 2014

Today the sky is clear, temperature about18 C, wind about 15 km/hr and no swells on the Sea of Marmara.  We took the 167 stairs, up to deck 11, for a few laps around the decks 11 & 12 before breakfast.  Then we went for breakfast to the Dining Room and sat with Sophia and Norm and two other Americans. After breakfast we returned to deck 11 for a few laps around the decks to be sure that we had a good start for our daily walking goal. At 6,467, we decided to take a break and go to the Al Bacio café on deck 5 for the Iglu frozen drink.  Then it was back to deck 11 and the Reflections lounge to collect our passports.  We were disappointed that the Greek border Security had not stamped the passports.  We have stamps for Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.

We had lunch in the Dining Room where we sat with two English women and a man originally from Hungary.  At 2 p.m. the announcement was made that passengers could go off the ship. The wind was still 20 km/hr on the ship and temperature was about 23 C, under a sunny sky. There was a Turkish band in full costume playing on the dock as passengers left the ship.  We decided to wander through the streets from the port to find the Takisum area and after 30 minutes of following signs and winding through narrow streets, we found Takisum Gazi Park at the top of a hill and a large square, where no cars, trucks or buses were allowed. It was the start of an avenue for a pedestrian only, probably 2 kilometers long, of shops (some American and international names) and cafés.  There was even a 7 or 8 storey shopping center called Demiroren with stores such as Gap and Sephora. There were tracks in the center of the street for the occasional tram. There were carts with people selling roasted chestnuts or cooked corn on the cob. After 7 or 8 long blocks, we decided to go back toward the water down a side street. It was narrow and only small cars and trucks could squeeze along the street where sometimes there were cars parked on the sidewalk, which is quite common in Turkey.  There were hair salons, barber shops, cafés, tattoo parlours, clothing stores, small fruit stores, flower shops, meat stores, and bakeries.  Some shops were no larger than 200 square feet.  When we could see the MSC and Celebrity cruise ships by the water, our pedometer count was 19,902 (We had walked almost 14 kilometres today.)  We walked past the university housed on a campus several hundred years old before getting to the security entrance to the port where we swiped are ship cards for the Turkish passport control and then swiped them again as we boarded our ship.  We dropped of our hats, sunglasses and cameras in the stateroom and headed up the 143 stairs to deck 10 for ice cream, which we ate by the outdoor pool watching the ferry and ship traffic on the Bosphorus Strait.  Then, we went back down the stateroom for one of the cameras and back to deck 12 to take final photos of the palaces along the strait that we could see form the ship. Before dinner we danced to the music of the Ocean Band.  Our table of 8 was all present for our last dinner together.  Norm and Sophia had taken a taxi to the Blue Mosque and had no trouble seeing it.  The interior blue tiles give it its name.

Our choices for dinner were Lobster Ravioli for the appetizer, then Panzanella Salad, followed by the entrée choice of Osso Buco (veal) or Beef Bourguinon.  The dessert choices were cheesecake with caramel sauce or chocolate lava cake. We all thanked Angel and Eda for their attentive service of our table for the cruise, then said good-bye to each other.  After dinner, we went back to the stateroom, to pack for departure on Thursday.  We missed the final show which featured multi-instrumentalist Oli Nez.