Istanbul

July 7, 2013: Sea day/Istanbul
Happily, it was a quiet morning, only about 10 of our tweens showed up, and they were fairly content to follow the schedule. We couldn’t go to the sports deck because it was too windy, so we ended up spending more time on Trivia and more Mad Libs instead. We ended up giving up on Adverteasers because all but one that showed up this morning was from Australia, and we discovered that they don’t have the same ad’s that we do, so they had no idea what I was talking about with some of the slogans.

After a quick lunch, we went back to it. More kids showed up this afternoon, so it was a bit hectic, again it was really windy, but we took them out to the Sports Deck for GagaBall anyway, partially so we could watch as we pulled into Istanbul. We did puzzles instead of more Trivia, because they’d gotten so bored and confused with the trivia this morning. We arrived to Istanbul early, so quite a few left as soon as we docked. That made it a bit calmer. None of them really wanted to learn to play Spoons, so we let them use the movie mats and bean bags to make forts and let them play in their forts for the last half hour.

I was off until tomorrow morning, so I waited for Jessie to call so we could get off and walk around together. Voirry didn’t get off until 5, so the three of us got off around 5:30 and took a taxi to the Old Town, where I’ve never felt so blonde. Voirry and Jessie are blonde as well, so we were a blonde trio walking around amongst many women with dark or covered hair. So much for my usual thing of blending in when I’m walking around exploring. I definitely can not achieve that here. I guess I hadn’t really thought much about where we were until I actually got off the ship and was walking around. In a way, it’s almost a tangible difference, but in another way, there’s not that much difference. Not everyone is dressed traditionally, I saw many women (not just tourists) in shorts and tank tops, but the majority are rather traditionally dressed, some more than others. But, despite the difference in style, walking around town is basically the same as any other place I’ve been (aside from the frequent looks/words about us being blonde). People go about doing their daily shopping, though it’s more markets than stores, and spend time as families in the parks.

We avoided the main square because Jessie and Voirry had been all but ordered by the Captain to not go there, because that’s where the protests have been happening. We did find a market, but not the Grand Bazaar, which was closed because it was Sunday. They bought some stuff, while I just took pictures of the mosque across the street, the stands in the market, and the vendors practicing their art. I was getting hungry by then, so we stopped at a restaurant and got some dinner for me, and a light snack for them since they were going back out later with some of the rest of Club HAL. Then, we headed back to the ship for them to pick up the others and for me to stay. I had made plans with James to hang out and watch a movie since he had IPM, and since I’m working port day tomorrow. We ended up watching Despicable Me because he hadn’t seen it!

Such a busy day, I feel like I did so much. I worked all morning and afternoon, wandered around Istanbul in the late afternoon and watched a movie in the evening.