YCGL - Friday, October 13, 2023 - Istanbul and the Hellespont

 Why can't I just write:

Today, we landed in Istanbul 30 minutes late because the wind and the currents in the Dardanelles slowed our progress. Minutes after we docked, I joined a grout to see the "Best of Istanbul."  Our guide has been a Istanbul tour guide for 35 years with a degree in Turkish History.  He was very good.  We went to the Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi Palace, had a delicious four course lunch and then spent an hour and a half at the covered Grand Bazaar.  We made it backto the ship in time for the 6:00 sailing and are on our way to Mykonos, where I'm disembarking.  

I could show three pictures and call it good.  Information is passed and You know I'm alive....kinda.  

But I can't!!!!  You got to know the story, or else it isn't worth telling.  

So, I'm hung up telling you about Knossos because the site is so complicated, that I haven't told you next was Ephesus, which I enjoyed because I had a personal guide, 1 on 1.  

And then the 12th in Istanbul.  Unfortunately, the wireless on board is so slow, it is currently downloading 468 photos since Ephesus.  I just checked, and it has downloaded some of the last pictures, so I'll show some of those.  

In the mean time,

                           Topaki Palace                             Hagia Sophia                  Blue Mosque

First, this is my good friend and ship steward, Margarito.  He comes in several times a day, usually when I'm not here, and neatens up my cabin, which of course, he is paid to do.  But he does it even when my cabin looks more like my office, and when I was sick and cabinbound, he checked on me a couple of times a day.  And when he sees me walking down the hallway, even at 200 feet away, he calls, "Hello, Mr. Thomas".  I've talked to him far more than anyone else on the ship.  He has a daughter who is 18 and is graduating from high school.  He hopes he can attend her graduation ceremony.

When I was in 5th grade at Bunker Hill Elementary School in Spring Branch, TX, I was a senior and got to spend additional time in the library.  (The 6th grade had just been moved up to the  Junior High School that year, so 5th graders ruled the school!)  I would go through the shelves and read each title.  If it it sounded interesting or that I had heard of, I would pull it out and start reading.  One book was tattered and old, but I ended up checking that one out several times.  It was "The Glorious Adventure" by Richard Halliburton, 1927.  Or it may have been "Complete Book of Marvels".  Anyway, in the Glorious Adventure, he travels the path of Ulysses.  In a section on the Hellespont, which was the Greek name for the Dardanelle Strait, he writes about Hero and Leasander and Lord Byron swimming the narrows.  Which he does also.  I've never wanted to do it, but I've always wanted to see it.  

                  

Crossing the Hellespont at 1:45                              One of the three bridges across the Straits

KaChunk!  Another one off the bucket list.  

I've got to finish packing.....