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.