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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| 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.
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| 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!
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