Adventures and misfortunes of a crocheter in a cruise- V

Awake to see the first light in Istanbul. Yaaaarnss, yeeessss!!!

Wednesday, september the 4th

I'm the first one to wake up this morning. Determined to be at the bus shuttle on time, I enter the mini-bathroom like bats out of hell, wash myself and put my clothes on. This last task is a little bit difficult to accomplish in a 5.4 square feet sort of room when you suffer from sea sickness.

Anyway, I wake up the rest of the family and make them turn on the turbo.

Today is the daaayyyy! Istanbuuuuul! Yaaaaarns! YYYYesss!

Ok, ok, I have to say that I'm very interested on visiting the monuments and all that stuff...

Come on, you guys! Hurry up! Quick breakfast and off to the bus.

Our guide today is a young Turkish lady? Girl? We are going to visit the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, then head to a luxury jewellery shop and a typical Turkish carpets factory and, after that, free time for exploring the Grand Bazaar. Mc husband and I look at each other in understanding: we're going to sneakily skip the visit to the jewellery and carpet shops and go directly to the Grand Bazaar, muahahah!

Wilhelm II Fountain. What does a German fountain do here? Eh?

As always, I'm just going to tell you the little stories about our excursion:

• Mrs. Soft Kitty and I look really pretty in our hijabs. It seems a fairly easy garment to wear but we have to constantly rearrange them over our heads ( I wish I have a bottle of super glue with me).

• The tourist lady that has delayed our group because she has not made her homework and she's wearing shorts! She needs to change clothes for a proper dress and a hijab. Oh, my!

• The terrible feet odour inside the Mosque. Obviously they are foreign feet as locals are very respectful people and wash their feet among other parts of their bodies before entering the Mosque. They surely think that foreign visitors are quite filthy... and I'm afraid that they are right.

• The moderate "harassment" of the street sellers while we walk from the Blue Mosque to Hagia Sophia. Our guide tells us to ignore them and- as we see how a street seller puts one of our tourist colleges under pressure- we decide to follow to the letter our guide's advice.

Obelisc of Tutmosis III.

• Hagia Sophia is amazingly beautiful buuuut unfortunately it's under repair so we can only visit a part of it. Pity!

• Holy cow!! I forgot to transfer the directions for the yarns bazaar to my mobile phone. Panic! I ask our guide for help. I'm not sure if she understands what I want but she writes something for me in a small piece of paper to show to the sellers of the Grand Bazaar. Phew!

We walk to a street near the Grand Bazaar where we stop and, as soon as our guide tells us where is the meeting point and when we have to be there and we sneak out directly to the Grand Bazaar.

We've got an hour! Not that much. Run, run!

While Mc Husband and our little creatures do the bargaining thing, I show the sellers my piece of paper and apparently they do not understand what's written down (I'm not going to reproduce here what I think of our guide but you can use your imagination...). What the hell am I going to do now?

Grand Bazaar. Image from Estambul.es

Thirty minutes left. Panic mode on. We go to a leather shop near the second entrance of the Bazaar. That's the one a seller that might have understood what I want has sent us to ask for directions again. We buy a leather purse for Mrs. soft Kitty and again I try to explain to the seller what I want and... He understands!! And he knows!! (I would have kissed him).

The street is called Mahmutpaşa and the yarn bazaar name is Kürkçü Han. He gives us the correct directions and we fly, fly, fly... down the street.

Image from Laylock. You see the corner of the red building? That's the yarn bazaar.

I'm running now, I can see the corner of the red building, heart pumping like mad. Then, Mc makes me stop and tells me that we've run out of time. Ten minutes left to walk to the meeting point.

Cannot breath, a huge lump in my throat, I wanna cry. I've been patient, everybody has had time for their shopping, everybody except me.

We begin to walk back to the meeting point. The three of them trying to comfort me. And I explode in anger, spilling out all that I have inside. Oh, oh, this is wrong, it's not their fault. I  apologise but don't want to talk about it any more. I'm sad.

On top of that, the bus is half an hour late!! I'm fed up with the aggressive offers of the street sellers, all I want is to go back to the ship, now!

We manage to have some lunch and go back to the cabin to have a nap. It takes me forever to fall asleep but, I finally do.

We talk about the big issue while having a coffee. We will definitely go back to Istanbul, it's an amazingly beautiful city and there are so many sites left to discover that another trip is a must. Therefore I will have another opportunity to bargain for yarns.

I'm not in the mood for crocheting but I try to, while the rest of the family have a shower and dress for tonight's show and dinner. And what do I find? A mistake, a wrong stitch but not in the last round or the round before the last one. The damned stitch is four rounds back! Probably a lack of concentration due to the persistent piercing sound of the whistle of the middle-aged man disguised as a little sailor that yesterday annoyed me so much.

What else can be wrong today?

Oooor it maybe the karma. I've been a bad, bad, girl today.

Anyway, I begin to undo all the way back to the wrong stitch very slowly as an act of contrition and leave it ready for tomorrow.

The wonder-Grandpas. They did the same cruise a few years ago and due to a health condition they cannot come to the excursions with us. We only share a few hours a day but we all are having great fun together.

Tomorrow will be an entire navigation day to Dubrovnik so we will have plenty of time to explore the ship, replenish energy and enjoy a day together.

Note: if you're planning to visit Istanbul and, sinceweareatit, buy some yarn, have a look at Laylock post about the directions for the yarn bazaar and don't forget to bring with you the name of the street and the name of the bazaar.

• Hours of excursion: 5
• Hours of siesta: 2
• Hours of crocheting: more likely frogging... 0.3333...
• Sea sickness pills: 4, maybe 5, cannot concentrate with this sickness.

That's all for today which is no small thing.

Catch you next Sunday! First Sunday of 2015!

Happy New Year, my dearest Earth beings!!

Flexi-Shooees: New model Baaahh-Boties!

This is a new model and the last one for this Winter... The Baaahh-Booties!!

Aren't they cute? Ultra-cute? Mega-cute?

Adventures and misfortunes of a crocheter in a cruise- IV

The market or Agora. I bet there was a yarn shop. 

Tuesday, September the 3rd

Today, Ephesus. And we wake up early again because Smirna is an hour away from Ephesus by bus.

Our guide today is a small middle aged lady ( middle aged, what a convenient couple of words for Earth beings like me who are not able to calculate another's age at first sight).

While in the bus she explains the History of Turkey, relating facts from the past to present ones. For Clon's sake! She's like, I don't know, Saint Google!

She speaks very slowly, extreme care in pronunciation, a calm voice that would have made me have a nap if what she was talking about was not interesting enough.

We arrive to a very crowded entry to the ruines. Our 5 buses plus uncountable more from other cruises. Our little guide lady leads us between the crowd to the entry and it takes us 20 secs to get inside (she would have made a perfect football player).

The sight of this ancient roman city is spectacular. As we walk inside, our guide tells us that there is an agreement between the Austrian and the Turkish governments by which the Austrian archaeologists are the only ones allowed to work in the ruins of Ephesus - Austrian government provides the money- and the Turkish exploit the tourism in the area (clever guys!).

The temple of Hadrian.

I don't want you to get bored so I'm going to tell you just the interesting parts.

The  Austrian archaeologists have recovered all the plans of the city so that they know exactly where to work (clever Romans!).

The Odeon. 

Our wise little Yoda tells us that politicians use to meet in the Odeon to discuss all the issues about the city and that when things were turning really bad, a band of musicians were ready to play some music to calm them down. Now I know why the world is so crazy these days, no violins in the Parliament any more. Oh, my! And there were 100000 souls living in that place too!

The Curetes or posh Street.

The Curetes Street is the posh street. Rich people used to live there. One can still see the ruins of the sewage system of the city (another Roman clever invention) as well as "regular" mosaics in part of the street. They are now working in a Patrician house where the mosaics were top of grade ones, rich in colour and detail.

Close to the Patrician houses are the Temple of Adriano, the baths and the latrines or public toiletes. The last ones are in perfect condition and were the place to socialise (Cleopatra's butt was there!) but, sorry, I cannot see it, I cannot imagine myself sitting there, trying to concentrate on my own business while the person next to me speaks to me trying to establish a conversation and farts at the same time. Can you imagine it? Can you imagine the terrible odour? I suppose that they burned aromatic herbs or something like that, yuck!

Wanna share a private moment?

At the end of the street there is a magnificent view: the library of Cadalsus, the door to the Agora (the market) aaand... the "house of love".

The Library of Celsus. Strategically positioned.

Yes, the wise people of the city thought that it would be a good idea to place the library close to the market so that women would eventually come in the library before or after shopping and in front of the house of love for men, before or after (I would rather say after), well, you know...

Now we are at the theatre. It's huge. Yoda tells us that it was a very important cultural space ( not sure if gladiators fights would be considered as "culture" or gore). I'm beginning to feel like dancing but refrain myself. They've been using the theatre for concerts and other cultural events but now it's forbidden. The grades are damaged and they have to be restored. I wish I could have had the opportunity to listen to a concert there. Pity...

The theatre. I feel like dancing...

Yoda gives us a 10 minutes break and we have a little walk through the harbour street before going to the exit.

The Harbour Street.

Typical souvenirs shops, no yarns (of course) and its damn hot. We've drank 3 litres of water.

Before returning to the port we make a strategic stop at a leather factory ( they've worked things out pretty well). Firstly they show us the last models in a short catwalk room, then to the shopping space. My eyeballs turn the other way around when I see the most beautiful leather jacket in the world: soft and extremely light Napa leather in grey, knitted hood ( my inner yarn radar's fault) and an exquisite printed lining.

Magically a salesman appears close to me and, in spite of telling him that I'm only having a look and that I'm not going to try it on, he insists. Perfect fit! Mc Husband asks for the price and its astronomical (why do I have to invariably choose the most expensive item of the whole shop?) but the salesman tells us that he will make a 50% discount, that is astronomical/2, still astronomical. When they begin to bargain the price I get embarrassed, take the beauty off and go straight to the accessories part of the shop, leaving them in the middle of a futile discussion.

Back to the bus. We are late and on top of that there is a huge traffic jam in the motorway. The bus driver decides to take the first available exit and, as he takes it, we find that right in front of us a tank truck is reversing to take the motorway again (has he gone mental or what??). There has been an accident and the exit is collapsed. Then our bus driver decides to do as the tank truck driver did and reversed back into the motorway (oh, my, we are going to die!!).

We arrive to the ship just on time (phew!). Adrenaline has left our bodys exhausted. This helps us to share our lunch with the hordes in peace and harmony. A nice nap and off to the swimming pools. It's a bit chilly so we head to the indoor swimming pool. Children, swim, me, crochet. Piiiip, piiiip! A piercing whistle sound. There is a middle aged man wearing a little sailor suit with a whistle in his mouth, using it!! because some children are behaving badly. 

I take a deep breath and return to my crocheting (wow, it's getting hot, like in a sauna room). Piiip, piiiip! Twenty seconds later, piiiip, piiiip, piiiiiiiip! Dammit with the whistle!! He could slip on the wet floor and swallow the damn whistle! ( oh, oh, bad karma).

Ok, relax, have a deep breath, straight back, shoulders in position and begin crocheting again. Ten minutes later my angora yarn is getting spongy, my fingers are wet and it's impossible to...piiiip,piiiiiip! Enough!

Back to the cabin, have a nice shower and off to meet the Grandpas.

Tomorrow Istambuuul! Yaaaarns! Goood!

• Hours of excursion: 5.
• Hours of siesta: 1.
• Hours of crocheting: 0.6666...
• Sickness pills: 4 ( I've gone all over Ephesus as if I was coming back home after a Roman bacchanal).

That's all for today which is no small thing.

Catch you next Sunday!

Flexi-Shooees: new yarn colours & Color Block Loopy Star Booties

This last week I received a couple of new yarns for the Loopy Star booties. Every time I receive a package it’s pure joy for me: I open it carefully, look with adoration at my new balls of yarn, touch them, smell them. I know, I know, I’m a yarn addict but you already know it.

And the mega-cute mini-sole key holders go tooo...

First of all a big thank you to all of your +1s, likes and comments about the Flexi-Shooees and the mini-soles.

Now, the result of the raffle.