Istanbul

October 15th/16th
Istanbul Overnight

We arrived in Istanbul on the 15th around 2pm, my second visit to the city and my first chance to see the nightlife. During the day I had tried to convince my friends into getting off the ship for a Turkish Bath, but due to them having a late night the previous night in the bar, they were to tired to get off. Instead I just went for a walk with George (Piano) and Juan (Tenor Sax guy from Argentina). We walked from the dock to a popular area of the city that I had not had a chance to see on my first visit to the city. This area was filled with stores, extremely busy, and really kind of exciting. We spent some time making our way down that main street till we arrived at the end where there was a street lined with small little music stores, our ultimate goal for the excursion. During the walk we stopped at a few places for food and snacks, most of which were traditional Turkish candies. I had some really great Baklava, some other peanut-buttery candy thing that was an instant sugar high, and whatever else we saw and felt like buying.
After a show that evening, I set out again with a few friends in the band. These were the friends that were out late last night and I was hoping they’d be up for a little excitement this evening as well. We started out by taking a cab up to the shopping street I had just came from earlier that day. After a quick dinner stop, it wasn’t long till we found a side street packed with bars and live music. We went into the bar where a band was playing “Welcome to the Jungle”. Maybe it wasn’t exactly the jazz club I was personally hoping for, but it was still pretty cool seeing a Turkish rock band playing American music. We left maybe an hour later to continue our search, but by this time, around midnight, my group had started to feel the effects of their last big night out and was ready to head back. After some last minute shopping and Ron (drummer) buying a fake Versace shirt from some dude for $10, we walked back to the ship. If it was any other port at any other time I probably would have left the group and continued my exploring on my own, but Istanbul by yourself at night seemed a little less attractive than mild disappointment. I’ll take a safe uneventful night over a raping from the Turkish Mafia any day. I then made some tentative plans for the morning and went to bed.
The next morning I woke up to find my friend didn’t want to wake up and get off the ship, big surprise. Having my exciting plans shot down now for the third time, I decided to go back to bed…another plan that was disrupted. A friend from the spa called me up to go outside for a walk that morning before we sailed at 2, so I woke up again and we left the ship for the down town area. We did the usual thing, went to the Bazar, got some food, and went into a cool Mosque before returning to the ship to leave the port.
Well, that about does it for this trip to Istanbul. I’m expecting my next visit to be better seeing as now all my friends have promised to redeem themselves by not blowing off my plans again…but we’ll see what happens. Thanks for reading!