The Written Word

Blue Mosque at Night

Derrrrvishes

Man with Fortune Bunnies !

Lazy McGraw here! I’ve been lacking in the ‘ol blog department lately. Here are some updates to the best of my traveling brain ability. These are also completely out of order. Huzzah!


Istanbul
This city was a real treat. We basically get three days/two nights here while people are disembarking and embarking so we did it up. When we got to Istanbul it really felt like the first place that we went that was kind of exotic (until Egypt. Yikes.). Muslims have been celebrating Ramadan so that’s the first thing you notice. Since they pray five times a day, some of the prayers are broadcast from the Mosque’s out loud via a giant speaker. It’s very cool to hear. That first day we went to the famous Grand Bazaar and looked around. It’s a lot less intimidating than I thought it would be but we didn’t buy anything. I tried to haggle for a lamp (by “I” I mean Brian) but the guy wouldn’t budge! We go back at the end of this week so we’ll see if he’s any looser. Cody then took us to a small entrance to a park where he claimed there were rabbits telling fortunes. Hot damn there sure were. It’s basically what you see in the picture. An old man who might (?) be homeless with two rabbits and a bunch of papers filled with fortunes in broken English. For three Turkish YTL he asks you your name, says it to the bunny and basically has the bunny by the scruff and it knocks out a fortune from the box. They were real cute and I was happy that they at least got some lettuce after their fortune telling feat. That afternoon we also had a delicious lunch of chicken and rice and I fell in love with apple tea. It’s a Turkish delight. We wandered along the waterfront and found a great place to relax, drink apple tea and do one of my favorite past times, smoke the hookah! They had a bunch of delicious tobacco flavors but I chose apple. I got a ton light headed and it was a ball! That first night we also made it to a Whirling Dervish show. Brian had attended one last year and praised it highly. I’ll say that my picture above it about 6 million times cooler than the actual show. I will also say we were all pleased that in the end we did something cultural but Brian was pissed because it supposedly was NOT like the show at all last year. We definitely saw the night an understudy was in because one dude was not up to the challenge of whirling for an hour. He almost fell over a few times and was tipsy turvy when returning to his praying position. It was also held in a train station and we sat in lawn chairs. YES! Culture in lawn chairs! Take our Turkish money please. What the hell is wrong with us? Post Dervish show we went back to the boat, cleaned up and went to where the young folks hang, Taksim Square. We met some
other ship jokers at an Irish Pub where they tried to charge us for the nuts they served us and we moved on. After another bar or two we wandered back to the boat for a night of Turkish sleep.

We visited the famous Blue Mosque the second day. The Mosque also gave us another installment of “People are Idiots”. It’s the rules that for ladies your shoulders and knees must be covered going into the Mosque. Some American ladies take this as a cue to play Jasmine from “Aladdin” and make the rest of us look like disrespectful jags. One woman insisted on putting on a jangly 3 dollar head scarf you find at souvenir stands with a ton of coins attached to it while posing for her husband against the columns. I’m sure the women being trafficked (that one’s for you Bonesho) really appreciate your support trash-a-tron! The Mosque is beautiful. It’s known as The Blue Mosque because most of the 21,000 tiles lining the inside are blue. Post Mosque we went back to Taksim Square to do some shopping and have lunch. That night we went back to the Hookah place and had a nice quiet Kebob dinner and did some more smokin’. Well I did at least. Hooray for Istanbul!

Mykonos
These Greek Islands have been so fun. The food is great and they are all insanely picturesque and beautiful. Mykonos has been my favorite so far. Probably because we rented SCOOTERS! This day was a total blast and as I type this we are on our way to Mykonos tomorrow and we’re doing the same thing. This island is incredible. Some of the views are absolutely breathtaking. I’ll say I did have a leg up on a couple of the boys since I drove a motorcycle for a couple of years. Brian had also rented one before he did this trip last year to prepare. I was hesitant to give any pointers to anyone in the parking lot of the scooter rental place since we were trying to give the effect of being seasoned riders. Well once we all took off it was on. And by “it was on” I mean minor wipe out time. I figured mine out pretty quick but my sweet Brendy took a bit of a spill. We turned a corner and all of a sudden all I could see behind me was Brendy on his side, on the ground semi-under a car’s fender. YIPES! Of course he is a-ok and it looked a ton worse than it was. Once we pulled into the Starbucks parking lot I was able to give a few riding pointers and I think he really flourished under my tutelage. And a mocha frappucino. He is now READY TO GO! Ever since we’ve been back he’s constantly watching “Wild Hogs” on the passenger channel and going “VRRROOM VROOOM!” miming his hands on fake handlebars. My little Hell’s ANGEL! We really can’t wait to ride again. Cody bit it once too but I think he might take the puss-out route tomorrow and rent a 4 wheeler instead. He can eat our dust!

That day we visited two beaches, had one of the most delicious lunches we’ve had so far and I saw a bunch of cute goats. Cute goats and good food = successful day.

Ship Life
*I promise to write about Egypt soon. That’s a whole other night’s worth of writing. I can’t believe we only have two cruises left after this one! We still have some great repeats coming up including two more Rome’s and another Venice. Of course we still miss Penny terribly and think of her every day. I think getting home will be hard, but it will be another grieving hump to get over. We’ll also have to start looking for some work which will be another hump. YEAH! FUN! (NO! AWFUL!)

*The cruisers have gotten substantially older. We get caught behind what someone once coined as “The Cane Train” a lot. A lot of slow oldies taking their slow ass time.

*Pre and Post Egypt has begun the fight of “GI”. Or Gastro Intestinal protection. This means in the buffet the workers now have to serve you everything so you don’t spread your nasty ass germs (that means you old people). From plates, to silverware, to coffee. Now to you non-cruise living folks this might seem like it’s not a big deal, but oh boy is it a pain in the ASS. I mean a PAINNNN. After awhile you just want some control over your cereal milk. The rumor is that it might last another MONTH until we get back to Miami, or it might end in Istanbul. Sweet Christmas for the love of mike pray it ends in Istanbul! For us and for the extra shifts the workers have to put up with.

*I’m officially done with most other entertainment on the ship. I can’t see another dance show, violinist, comedy-juggler-face-painting-cabaret-tapping-Benny Hill-talker.

I miss all of you reading this right NOW. See you soon!