Istanbul

Hello, It was fun to watch another ship pull into the dock. Impressively, there was no impact at all it just stopped moving as the tugs expertly got it into place. We had been warned that this harbor was quite large and would take a while for us to get to our buses. It went beyond my expectations as we walked and walked. Usually, it is just a short walk from the ship to the bus, usually we could even see the buses. We went to the Egyptian bazaar. It was quite full of people even though the tourist season had passed.

I was having stomach issues so I did not concentrate on anything but “hanging on” until I could use a bathroom. It was not a totally successful battle. So, I can tell you I did not really enjoy this city as I had hoped. Leroy and I had been here in the past. At least there are those memories. This also had a tour inside a mosque. That was nice as we had been in a mosque, but no tour or explaining the culture. We had a boat ride tour of the area that was very nice. In the evening we were to go on another bus ride around the city in the dark. I had expected that to be quite nice as I remembered when we when we came in the city years ago and it was all lit up. Beautiful. I decided I had better stay on the ship close to a toilet and wash my clothes. Grateful that I could use those washers and dryers. Grateful that friends understand and have sympathy. The rest of our group decided to skip that last excursion as we were all to get up very early in the morning. I chose not to eat anything more that day or the next morning and I was much better. While we were out in the city in the afternoon, waiting for our guide to lead us a guy came up behind Leroy and started massaging his shoulders. He then cracked his back. He also did that to one of the other guys in the group. We are not sure what this massager was up to, but we were all uneasy about it. After this some boys came up and he yelled at them. I wonder if they were to pick our pockets while we were distracted. Nothing happened. Perhaps we all had our things well guarded. Paula