I haven’t posted for several days beause our internet reception has been very low.

Sunday, October 10

Piraeus, Greece. “Never on Sunday” was our theme for this day. We were booked on a “panoramic” tour of Athens, but it was canceled. The reason given was that the center of Athens was supposed to be closed. We have heard various causes of the closing from demonstrations of some sort (evidently the Greeks like to demonstrate for practically any reason) to a bicycle race. So Athens has joined Jerusalem on the list of places that will have to continue their existence without me. It’s just a well, as the weather has been cloudy with attempted rain all day.

All but the 125 of us who are continuing on were off and away by about 9:30 a.m. Jill and I had free run of the Crow’s Nest this morning where we watched a huge number of passenger ships and ferry boats (some large enough to be ships) dance around in the harbor. After lunch we handed in our passports yet again. Each country on this trip seems to have their ideas whether we need to personally carry our pasports around, or whether the ship should keep custody of them, so it’s been “pick ‘em up then turn ‘em in” all the way fo far.

As I type this, my ears are assaulted by the very loud General Emergency Alarm for the life boat drill. The good news is that we don’t have to go to it since we did it at the beginning of the last cruise...also, that people no longer have to drage their life jackets to the drill which makes everything so much easier. That change was probably brought about by someone suing the line over tripping on someone else’s dragging life jacket straps.

And speaking of drills...at 10:45 p.m. everyone on board was startled out of a week’s growth or of at least a sound sleep when the alarm bells went off. It appears that there was a small fire in the laundry area, quickly controlled according to the Captain’s announcement a couple of moments later. Jill and I had both turned in some laundry today, so we were hoping that it was not ours that burned up. A bit later the Captain came on again and announced that it was a burn-out in an electric motor. That’s the first time in 36 cruises that I’ve ever heard the alarm bells other than during an announced drill. For future reference, short long short long short long means fire.

Monday, October 11

At sea then Istanbul, Turkey. Early this morning we sailed past the Dardenelles, but I slept through it. A lazy morning and early afternoon.

We sailed into Istanbul around 3:00 p.m. On the way in we had excellent views of the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and the Topkapi Palace. We docked between Kilic Ali Pasa Mosque with its golden crescent and the older Nusretiye Mosque. The ship was cleared by 4:00 p.m. and passengers began heading ashore, including Jill who had a tour to the Spice Bazaar this evening.

My own tour this evening was called “Istanbul by Night” and didn’t leave until 8:00 p.m. We went to a nightclub called Kanvaserei where we were given a very nice dinner of a Turkish appetizer place, another course of cheese dumplings, then salad, followed by shish kebab, rice, potatoes, and mixed veg, with fruit or ice cream for dessert along with all the wine, beer, soft drinks, coffee, etc. that you could want. Meanwhile we were entertained by some truly amazing belly dancers, folk dancers, and a comedian/singer. On the way back we were shown some of the local sights lit up at night and got back to the ship about midnight.

Tuesday, October 12

Istanbul, Turkey. Early this morning Cunard’s sparkling new Queen Victoria arrived and docked in front of us. It is huge!

This morning’s tour was done in a continuing light drizzle of rain. We went to the Blue Mosque (which I didn’t go in as it was a lot of walking and you had to take your shoes off...I have enough trouble walking around with shoes on!). We also saw the Hagia Sofia (originally a church, then a mosque, now a museum). This photo taken as we arrived shows both of them with the Blue Mosque on the left.

The next stop was the Grand Bazaar where I did not buy any rugs. Then we went across the Bosphorus Bridge to the Asian side of Istanbul and back in a huge stop and stop traffic jam. Again I am impressed with the skills of tour bus drivers eo navigate super narrow twisty streets with tons of traffic on them.

There are so many mosques in Istanbul that the call to prayer five times a day is almost like a competition between the muzzeins from each mosque chanting through their loudspeakers. It sounds like each one is using a different set of music and lyrics, and some throw in extra trills and grace notes. It probably wouldn’t sound so chaotic if I knew the language.

We sailed about 5:00 p.m. passing under both bridges that cross the Bosphorus Strait and into the Black Sea.

Wednesday, Ocyober 13

At sea. We are living an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The ship is infested with a large flock of small brown birds.

Last night, as we got ready to go to a formal night dinner, we discovered our first one...a little sparrow-sized bird that had somehow gotten onto our veranda. When I tried to go out the door, suddenly this bird flew right past me into our cabin, fluttering madly. We chased it out of the closet with one of my canes (and closed the door), then chased it out of the bathroom (and closed the door). Finally we got it back out the sliding glass door. But when we tried to go out again, thinking it was gone, in it came again. Jill finally chased it out by waving her needlepoint project. We went off to dinner thinking it would be gone when we got back because the lights would have been off for several hours.

It wasn’t gone, and had been joined by three others.  So we went up to Lido deck so Jill could have a last cigarette of the day. On Lido deck there was a whole swarm of these birds, flitting about, cheeping and pooping everywhere. This morning our four were not on the veranda, but there was plenty of evidence of their overnight stay out there. Since we are in the middle of the Black Sea, the ship is obviously their home until we reach Sochi. I hope that they will leave us there and that the Russians won’t mind that we are bringing them a new bird colony.