Kusadasi/Sea Day

August 19th/20th
Kusadasi/Sea Day

Kusadasi was another Turkish port, and due to another renegade rehearsal, my time there was cut drastically short. I got off the ship as early as I could to get the most time possible and began exploring with some friends. We went in a few shops here and there, bought some coffee and snacks, and basically just wandered though the bazaar. There wasn’t much time to do any more than that, unfortunately leaving me with a not so productive port visit. The area was beautiful though and I certainly enjoyed the hot weather, oh, and the game of the day dealt with timing how long one could go without having a local vendor approach you saying “my friend” – it usually took less than a minute.
After the shows that night I decided to host a party in my room. This wasn’t supposed to be a huge crazy party, just a get together for the band to chill out with food and drink. Believe it or not, I still had my bottle of Estonian Vodka from way back when (remember the tram incident?) and hadn’t gotten through even half of it, so I envited my friends over to enjoy it with. Mark brought over some Turkish Delight we’d bought in port that day and Igor and I grabbed some food from the mess. They must have been over for 4 hours, just talking about stuff and having a good time. It was nice to have everyone over, it’s not something I’ve ever really done, but my sudden popularity in being the one providing the drinks was more than welcome, ha. But it was a great night and one that I hope we can do again before I leave the ship. The only downside of it all were the final two hours wherein everyone simply discussed our less than approved of music director…kind of a drag to talk about, but at least it means we all agree on something.
The next day was a sea day complimented with a Dixie set and the usual thing at night. The general opinion is that we all need a day off; extra Dixie sets aren’t doing any of us favors. But that aside, I actually played a couple decent clarinet solos, so I guess that’s almost exciting…almost. Thanks for reading!