Day 6 & 7 - Istanbul Turkey

So we spent most of the 6th day on board the ship as we didn't arrive in Istanbul until 4pm. The Kidlet has been off on his own playing with friends most days at the kids club. He even had lunch with a buddy completely ditching the hubby and I! I went to the spa and had a seaweed wrap and massage in the bed that is like a water bed. It was very cool. Hubby got a tan by the pool.

When we arrived we got off the boat for dinner at a restaurant called the Babek fish house. The Kidlet was a great sport and tried a bit of everything and ate half a fish! I suspect it was because that was all they had! We also tried Turkish coffee! The restaurant was right on the Bosporus which is the body of water separating the Asian side of Turkey from the European side.

Day 7 was spent touring Istanbul with a private guide because our other tour got cancelled. She was a great guide and took us to the spice market where we bought some tea. We also got a lesson in spices and enjoyed some Turkish tea. They have small glass cups for the tea which are quite hot to the touch. They also have childrens tea, Josh picked kiwi flavoured.

Then we went to an underground cistern, which was very cool! It was used 1500 years ago to provide water for the city. They used columns from old Roman buildings when they built it, so all the columns are different. Even then they recycled! We also walked around an older shopping district and tried Turkish Delight as well as bought some to bring home. I also got to try baklava which was very yummy. Turkey is a Muslim country so every day at sunrise, lunch, mid afternoon, supper and bedtime there is prayers over a loud speaker for everyone to pray while in Mosque. We popped into a Mosque, basically it's a carpeted room with a small riser for the Aman and they all face towards Mecca and pray. Our guide dropped us at a mall where we had lunch and tried out Starbucks.

Then in the evening I sat with the kidlet while he had an early dinner and headed to kids club so hubby and I could go to a Wine paring dinner on board the ship. The food and wine were great! The chef is from Vancouver and he worked with Andrew at some point! Our table companions were a father and daughter from Toronto. The dinner was really nice, but the three of us were exhausted when we got back to the room so we all fell asleep fast.

I woke up due to the fact that I was eaten alive by mosquitoes the other day and I have about 20 bites all of which itch like crazy! So that's the third sort of illness in the family since we got on board, so we should be good now as bad luck comes in threes! We dock in Mykonos early afternoon where we will wander around and hopefully see the Greece I pictured in my mind!