First days on boat (days 1 - 3)

Second day in Istanbul (Monday) we woke up to the call to pray at about 10 to 6am, which was pretty surreal. After breakfast we went to the Istanbul Golf Club where Richard played 9 holes of golf moderately well (only lost one ball). This photo is looking back towards the club house. Caddie didn't speak English, but he was still able to express his amazement at Richards golfing ability (or not at some points). Had nice 100ml standard JD's after the game, which cost as much as the taxi ride to get there, but was well worth it.

We saw this guy on the street selling lemonade out of a giant teapot on his back. It was very nice and refreshing drink, and he was more than happy to pose for a picture.

We checked out of our hotel, and with our packs on our backs we walked down the hill to the boat. Was probably only a 15 minute walk, but we were very glad to get there. We got on the boat a bit after midday, but the rooms weren't ready until 1.30pm, so we had a good wander around and had a lovely lunch. (There is food available all the time!)

This is going to our first night dinner. Really awesome dinning room. There are two sittings one at 6pm and one at 8.30pm. We're in the first one (because I get hungary at 6!!) We have two great hosts serving us Lenuta (a lady from Romania) and Oleora (a guy from Nigeria/ Brazil). They just keep bringing us food, and nothing is too much trouble. We're seated at a table for 6, but so far we've only met two of the others, they are from Phillipines and have a number of motorbike outlets in Manilla.

Here we are leaving port. Richard got called Mr Jack a few times. There is a "cocktail of the day" every day, and we have been getting into the habit of starting the day with this. Yesterday was a sparkling wine with port, today is malibu bay breeze. Yum. Looking forward to Lynchburg lemonade on day 5, that might be a schooner bay day.

Here's the sunrise for day 3. We are travelling directly east towards it, heading to Kusadasi which is on the coast of Turkey. We are going on a 7 hour day trip to Ephasus, (it's not all beer and skittles). Internet on the boat costs US65 cents per minute, so we'd better log out now. Will probably not update this everyday.

PS the weather is absolutely fantastic!! It has been a bit breezey, but the sun has been out. Todays high is predicted to be 29!! Just lovely.

Once we dropped our bags off we went for a long long walk.
First we walked up hill to Istanbul Caddesi which is a long pedestrian street of shops. So much to look at all at once. (This photo is from when we went there in the afternoon, it was a bit more deserted in the morning.) We walked along this street to the Taksim Square, and then down towards the Basphorus River where we have to catch the boat tomorrow. We walked along the waterfront to the Galata Bridge.
(I just have to say here, that the side streets are cobbled and narrow, and that there are cats everywhere! They roam around and don't seem concerned about any people. Most buildings seem really old, and some are in total states of disrepair. Really interesting to wander around and take in all these sights.)
Along the way we came across heaps of these places like bars where you sit around a smoke out of the Turkish smoking things. (Sorry, I don't know the name of them). The "hipper" ones had bean bags to sit on. Thought Grannie would like this photo of a purple and pink one. There were so many of these places, it must be a very popular pass time.
The Galata Bridge has hundreds of people fishing off it! They fish from on top of the bridge where the road is, and under the bridge there are restaurants and bars. We spent an hour or so at a restaurant there having a few drinks in the
sunshine watching a few fish being caught. We were served by a guy who looked a bit dodgey (we thought he might be Borat's son), he spoke English reasonably well and we had a bit of a laugh with him.
Then we walked up hill (again!!!) to the Galata Tower. We had to cue a bit to go up, but not too long. The veiw of the city from the top was amazing! (Though I was slightly concerned about the safety rating of the balcony around the top.) This photo is looking towards the Asian continent part of Istanbul. The cruise ships on the left is where we will catch our boat from.
It was only a short walk from the tower back to our hotel, where we were able to check in. The room is lovely and big, free wi-fi, and looks over the street. There is a bottle store opposite where Richard bought a small bottle of JD's which we drank on the roof top. Lovely. We did another walk up Istanbul Cad, and then came back to our hotel for tea. We went to bed at about 8pm, and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was fast asleep. It had been a very long couple of days!

What a long day (and a half)! Two long flights with a 7 hour stop in Singapore. (Singapore airport is amazing, so many duty free shops!!) The first thing Richard spots in Turkey is motorbike helmets at a duty free shop, seen something new already (so we have to take a photo of it). Now off to the hotel, and I foolishly presumed that we'd be able to get a map in the airport somewhere, but no such luck. I knew what part of the city we needed to head to, so we got on the metro (with a bit of help) and headed in to the unknown. Hardly anyone speaks English enough to have a conversation that is understood, so it was a bit difficult to find out where the hotel actually was. Using the metro turned out to be very easy and very fast, and then we ended up getting a taxi the rest of the way to the hotel. Alison has neglected to say we walked up hill for some time trying to find the hotel, given this is the city of seven hills it could have taken a while. In the end we found a taxi and after various indepth discussions between the taxi drivers we set off. I was hoping this would not end up like my Buenos Aires taxi experience and much to my delight it did not. 10 Lira and 10 minutes later we were at our hotel (photo above)

The hotel was a little hard to spot because it is also a cafe/ restaurant (with a roof top eating/ drinking area). The lady owner of Galata Life Hotel speaks fluent English, which was fantastic. We got there too early to book in, but we were able to leave our bags and she leant us a map and we were off exploring.

Ok, we've made it to the lounge and Al's had a cry about missing the kids now it's time to start drinking (what no Jack!).

Yeah, yeah, I've had my cry but I'm still finding it hard to leave the kids. Thanks so much to Tom and Merry for looking after them for so long. Richard is still bitching on about having to go "cattle class" with me. They didn't have us sitting together for the Singapore to Istanbul leg, but they quickly fixed that up, so we will be nice a cosy packed in with all the peasant fliers.

The start of a new adventure

It looks like we're off on another off shore excursion, it's been a long time coming. This time it's without the boys. Three weeks holiday with some work for Richard and shopping for Al tacked on the end.
We fly out tomorrow to Istanbul, catch the boat and cruise around Greece and Israel for 11 nights before getting back to Istanbul on the 7th of October. From Istanbul we travel around Italy going to Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Parma before heading home with a stop off in Singapore for a day and a half. We get back in time for the RWC finals (the All Blacks better be playing), so if you haven't organised anything you're welcome to join us in the church on the 23rd of October to consume some duty free and try and keep us awake while we watch the game.
That's about it for now, we'll hopefully up date this blog daily if we have time, so all things going well we'll see you tomorrow.