AMAPrima Black Sea Voyage Live Blog/Review Sept 2014

[Familygoboston]

I had high hopes to finish up the cruise before the weekend, and pick up with Istanbul on Monday, but that didn't happen (still gotta eat and work out occasionally;) ) Unfortunately, this weekend we have some other plans and I won't be at the computer. Will finish up the report next week! Have a great weekend!

[Hydrokitty]

Asking me if I think a government project will be successful is getting into political territory! But Princess has already moved Island to the Med, so they must think so.

 

Well I'd be more inclined to believe Princess than government.

 

In response to your other point: we left from and returned to Ft. Lauderdale but we did do a complete transit. Coral Princess went through the Atlantic locks, we got off and took the ferry boat through to the Pacific, and then returned by bus to Colon to which Coral Princess had returned. We did do the entire Panama Canal in one day. We did have breakfast in the Atlantic and dinner in the Pacific (well, not dinner but we did sail on it) on the same day. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! ;)

 

That's interesting. I didn't know anyone did that. We actually went through twice, once on Infinity and then we took an optional tour which (we didn't realize at the time) was a ferry sized boat and going through on two different sized ships made for a very interesting experience. I imagine the ferry must have been similar to ours, which left from the old US Naval Station.

[Familygoboston]

Belogradchik Excursion

 

 

The town is built among some amazing natural rock formations.

 

 

 

 

Rocks from the fortress in town

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belogradchik Rocks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Familygoboston]

Belogradchik Rock Formations

 

Jeff taking photos of the rocks from the fortress

 

 

 

 

 

Each of these formations have been named with a little legend about them, and our guide told us the stories that went with various formations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martenichki are red and white threads given at the holidays to loved ones and then tied to a tree or shrub outside for good luck. We saw several of these at the fortress.

 

[Familygoboston]

Baba Vida Fortress in Vindin

 

We made our way back by bus to the port town of Vindin and toured the Baba Vida Fortress. They had arranged for a little play to be staged at the the fort about a legend relating to the king and his daughters (one of his daughters is who the fortress is named for) We decided to wander around the fort instead, but could hear bits and pieces of the performance. from the stage area set up in the fort. This is considered the best preserved fort from the medieval era and it was very well kept and presented.

 

Baba Vida

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detail of the wall in the jail...with markings made by prisoners marking the days.

 

 

 

 

 

Detail of a metal reinforced door

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some folks took the opportunity to walk back to the ship from the fort, because it is within easy walking distance from the ship rather than see the performance or tour the fort.

[Familygoboston]

Sailing to Giurgiu midday

 

When we returned to the ship, there was an OAT ship alongside us; they moved away so the AMAPrima could make its way to Giurgiu while we had lunch.

 

The afternoon was a quiet one, we spent it on deck enjoying the passing scenery and the crew set up a delicious ice cream bar on the sundeck. I should have taken a photo but I was too busy eating!

 

Cruising to Giurgiu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner menu and a little surprise on our bed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we arrived to Giurgiu in Romania, we decided to do a little packing early. The Romania Day can be very long, and having most of our stuff put together gave us more time to enjoy the next day.

[Familygoboston]

Giurgiu to Bucharest

 

We had an early breakfast and met our tour guide Elena on the red bus to Bucharest.

 

 

It was early and quite a few folks were commuting to work. Because of this Bucharest economy felt more developed, because this was the first place that seemed to havemost people following a rhythm of working; commuting, lunch hour, people using public transit to go home from work.

 

 

 

 

 

But some of the old still exists, like the name of the market...imagine a time when there was one, and only one, market in "sector 5"!

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were examples of old apartments. Our guide explained that after the fall of Communism, people were able to rent to own their apartments, but not everyone has the same means to care for them. So in many of these countries we saw buildings with some apartments well maintained while others right next to them were poorly maintained because the owner could not afford the maintenance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw some renovated apartments where the group had obviously collected fees to improve the exteriors of everyone's apartment. Our guide explained that some of these older apartments are now the most sought after because of their excellent locations in the city and proximity to public transit.

 

 

 

 

 

These apartments were designed by Ceausescu to be decorative and "match" the baroque period buildings. While it was rare to have decoration during the Communist era, Ceausescu was trying to mimic the look major western capitals and in the end it was his undoing, with money spent on these projects while people starved. There were dozens of these huge buildings repeated all over the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bucharest is currently preparing to celebrate 555 years and there were signs and promotion all over the city.

 

[Familygoboston]

Bucharest, Romania- Village Museum

 

Our first stop was a neat little museum of typical village homes from the Romanian and Transylvania countryside through the years. The park is right in the middle of the city, and our guide told us that when they built the village (for a mid 19th century "exhibition", which were so popular during that time) the people who lived in the homes, actually came and lived in the middle of the city in their homes! Of course during the world war bombing of the 20th century, they decided to go back to the nice quiet countryside and then it became a museum rather than an actual museum village!

 

Our guide gave us time to wander on our own.

 

The homes and gardens were pretty and there were some good descriptive plaques in English, but otherwise, we found it difficult to get a feel for the lives people led. Historical interpreters would have made the place great! Instead there were cranky old lady docents who yakked on their cell phones and then waved you off if you took too many photos of the interiors (because they want you to buy the booklet for 4 Leu in the gift shop.) That's not much money, so if you'd like to take photos, go buy the book before you tour and then wave it at them with a smile when they scowl at you!

 

We noticed because they couldn't hire enough folks several interesting buildings could not be left open. So we brought one home to support the park and it's up keep!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interiors were decorated with amazing embroidered cloths. The gift shop also sold some lovely embroidered work and pottery too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hydrokitty]

Missed you over the week-end!!! Our cruise did not go to Belogradchik or Vindin and after seeing your pictures I wish we had. We continued into the Danube Canal, built by Tito, to Constanta, which is actually on the Black Sea and then bussed back to Bucharest, which was a 2 hour ride from H---!! In Bucharest we had a panorama drive tour and then visited the People's Palace, which was outstanding, but I would have liked to have spent more time in Bucharest and skipped Constanta.

 

Great job....like I said before: Best trip review E.V.E.R.!!!!

:D

[Familygoboston]

Missed you over the week-end!!! Our cruise did not go to Belogradchik or Vindin and after seeing your pictures I wish we had. We continued into the Danube Canal, built by Tito, to Constanta, which is actually on the Black Sea and then bussed back to Bucharest, which was a 2 hour ride from H---!! In Bucharest we had a panorama drive tour and then visited the People's Palace, which was outstanding, but I would have liked to have spent more time in Bucharest and skipped Constanta.

 

Great job....like I said before: Best trip review E.V.E.R.!!!!

:D

 

It may be that the "sights" weren't ready for tourists yet! We found so much of this itinerary was "newer", recently refurbished with funds from the EU, and recent additions to old sights to make them more tourist friendly...its possible, it wasn't ready for prime time when you traveled!

 

Thanks again for your support! We had to close up our summer home, and internet there is super slow, and I don't really have access to a computer to work on reviews. Now that I am back, I hope to get through Istanbul by the end of the weekend, but we've got lots of photos and touring days there, so we will see how it goes. Im into the meat of college applications with our daughter; every weekend, we have to proof read applications and essays and hit "send" on another common app...hoping all this is over by mid December!:eek:

[Familygoboston]

Bucharest Bus Tour

 

On the Bucharest tour, you are given 3 options...after lunch you can stay to enjoy a pedestrian promenade shopping area, do a Parliament building tour, or head back to the ship. We drove around the city after the village seeing the major sight by bus. After a while it became clear we were killing time, and everyone was starving. Lunch was on the itinerary at 1 PM, and 1 PM came and then went. Finally, our guide admitted that Matyas was in a pickle; another tour group arrived late (scheduled for 12, they arrived at 1PM) and the restaurant couldn't accommodate us till 2 PM! So the guides were vamping adding extra stops and driving in circles around the major buildings.

 

We saw quite a few business buildings, and it was clear that the city had figured out naming rights and advertising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Media building; this building started out as THE media building for State media during Communism, but now houses several media outlets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw several of the sights by bus, that have people calling Bucharest, Paris of the East, including the Arch of Triumph, the Kings palace , which is now an art museum. We drove through the North District (1800s) which was preserved during Communism as homes of Communist party officials.

We also saw the Liberty Palace on Liberty Boulevard. Most of this is very difficult to photograph from a moving bus!

 

Parliament building

 

 

 

 

 

[Familygoboston]

Bucharest Bus Tour

 

Our stop before lunch was the Patriarchs Romanian Orthodox Cathedral. This was beautiful, and we had plenty of time to enjoy it, since we were killing some time before lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Familygoboston]

Bucharest Bus Tour

 

We arrived right around 2 PM for lunch at traditional Romanian place. I don't know the name, because you couldn't see the name of the place there were so many buses parked alongside. The buses were gridlocked, and the other party was still finishing up, but there were plenty of seats and the service prompt and the food was pretty good; the quality was much like you'd get at any wedding, if they were serving traditional Romanian wedding food! Wine was included, and there was a very nice singer and violinist, although they didn't sing Romanian folk songs, they just sang and played traditional stuff like you'd hear, well at a wedding anywhere; Atlanta, Peoria, Oakland etc.;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, Matyas (who was hustling to make all this work!) arranged who was to go on what bus based on where they wanted to go next. A portion of people went to do the Parliament tour, others would be left in town to wander, but only for about 45 minutes before they would need to bus back to the port of Giurgiu. The biggest group went back to the ship.

 

We had planned to see the Parliament tour, but I had hit a wall. I knew we had 4 days of touring Istanbul ahead, and I was just "citied out", and frankly, my head for history only holds so much before I just get overloaded. I headed back to the ship and Jeff went on to the Parliament tour.

 

We had a friend who decided to skip Bucharest all together and do a 1/2 day walking tour of Rousse, which is literally across the river (there is a bridge!) She reported it was very nice and relaxing, so if doing the Bucharest city tour and 2 hours of busing doesn't appeal, that could be a good option!

[Familygoboston]

Parliament Tour

 

In order to tour the Parliament Building, you must have your passport with you, and they will look at that and you pass through security. In the case of Jeff and the crew from AMA, the regular tour guides at the Parliament Building had already left for the day. So they had our AMA guide, who had done the Parliament guiding job before taking this one. It was great because she was able to tell them what they are taught to talk about and then she could also share her own perspective on it!

 

The building was designed by Ceausescu, but not finished before he was killed by his own people. At that point, a decision had to be made to either mothball the whole thing and waste all the money already spent, or push forward and finish the thing to be used by the Parliament, as a symbol of freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Familygoboston]

Parliament Tour

 

Here again, you can see the detail and opulence designed to rival western parliament buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But of course, some basic things were not done, that one would expect in the mid 1980's to 90's building, such as the fact that the building was not wired and does not have any ventilation system (no central heating or AC) because of Ceausescu's paranoia that someone could use those systems to poison him. You can even notice the window ac units in the exterior shots!

 

[Familygoboston]

Return to the Ship and Dinner

 

So I returned to the ship...put on my bathing suit and finally got into that pretty little heated pool on deck. I met a friend there and we chatted and relaxed and it was exactly what I needed to decompress after a very busy week, with lots to think about and emotions to process.

 

When Jeff returned from the Parliament tour, I was there to greet him! Don't I look very relaxed!?!

 

 

 

 

Jeff joined me on deck where we "sailed" just directly across the river to Rousse.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner

 

 

After dinner, quite a few folks spent time packing, and everyone got to bed early since the departure plans for most folks were very early!

 

 

 

(tomorrow, I'll get a start on our disembarkation day and first day in Istanbul!)

[Familygoboston]

This was the violinist at lunch in Bucharest...I thought he was very good!

 

[YOUTUBE]UAEj7G9NKEc[/YOUTUBE]

[Familygoboston]

The Romanian Orthodox Cathedral

 

 

 

 

 

[H2Otstr]

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a3d801b3127ccef33d03eead6b00000120O00CaN27dw4bsQe3nwc/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00107887770420130620203415765.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

 

Here is the name of the restaurant in Bucharest :).

Edited October 27, 2014 by H2Otstr

[Familygoboston]

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a3d801b3127ccef33d03eead6b00000120O00CaN27dw4bsQe3nwc/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00107887770420130620203415765.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

 

Here is the name of the restaurant in Bucharest :).

 

Thanks! It was a cute place, and we enjoyed our meal and the entertainment!

[Familygoboston]

Disembark

 

The time had come to disembark, which is always sad, to say goodbye to the crew of the ship and new friends. Many people were making their way to Istanbul, so we knew we'd be seeing many of them there, including our wonderful tour manager, Matyas.

 

 

There were several options for disembarkation, and each one was spelled out on the Daily Cruiser and on the flip chart by Matya's desk. About 122 people took the bus through Bulgaria option, 6 of us flew in the morning. As you can see from the Daily Cruiser; we had to be up and out by 5:30 AM! It was dark, but the crew had a light breakfast set up in the lounge and were far more "cheery" than the folks on vacation! Everyone else busing to Istanbul was embarking the buses at 8 AM, and others making their way independently were assisted with luggage and calling taxis to the airport, or meeting their guides/drivers for onward touring.

 

We collected our passports from the front desk. We had a passenger van and driver waiting for us in the dark, we identified our luggage and made sure it got on the van. We made our way over the bridge back to Romania.

 

We were joking about feeling like we were in the movie Midnight Express, when we arrived at the border checkpoint in the dark with only truckers. Our drivers handed over our passports over to stern (tired?) looking border patrol and we waited in the cold and dark to be "approved" to head back into Romania. It was more dramatic in our minds...no flashlights in our faces, or interrogations in foreign languages...the polite border guards did a quick head count and sent us on our way. About an hour later we arrived at the airport, and the 6 of us were early enough that we had to wait for the check in counter staff to arrive before checking in.

 

For those that are unfamiliar with European airports, I thought Id share some details about how they are a little different than US airports.

 

-Most departure boards will usually only list the flights leaving in the next 2-3 hours. There is usually one large one at the entrance of the terminal which will list the whole day, so check that before you enter further into the airport if you arrive early, so you can see if your flight is on time and find out where the check in for your flight will be. The check in desk might not be assigned until 2-3 hours in advance. Once you move further into the airport, your flight may not pop up again till a couple of hours in advance.

 

-when your departure pops up on the big board, there should be a number next to it with the place to check in (drop bags & get boarding passes) It's a good idea to queue at check in desk once it's posted, even if the rep hasn't arrived yet, as the line will get long.

-Once that has happened you can go through security. The boards you will see now begin to list flights departing in the next 2-3 hours. They generally use a color code, even if you can't read the language (most airports use English as a second language) You'll find at some point there will be a gate number assigned, then the board will show that boarding has started, then there will be a last call for boarding. The colors usually go from green to red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of us who flew, we had an AMA representative meet us at the Istanbul airport, transfer us to the Intercontinental hotel and there were desk hours for us to ask questions or get advice until Matyas arrived with the bus folks and held desk hours in the hotel lobby himself.

 

 

 

IC Istanbul

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's how what our days with AMA included:

 

Day 1 Disembark/bus to Bucharest (1 hour)/ fly to Istanbul/check into hotel Intercontinental in Taksim Square.

 

Day 2 Istanbul City Tour was offered in the AM by AMA, free time PM / The bus folks arrived at 7 PM (they were expected at 5, but were running late)

 

Day 3 Morning free time while bus folks had the Istanbul City tour / Optional Turkish Delight tour in the PM for both fliers and bus folks (we're all together now!!)

 

Day 4 Topkapi Palace tour was offered for everyone in the AM / optional Bosporus cruise was offered to all in the PM

 

Day 5 The tour manager had a very well organized departure schedule based on everyone's individual flight arrangements.

 

However- we did NOT take the included City Tour or Turkish Delight tour...we had arranged for 2 full days with a private guide our TA had found for us. We chose this so we could go out earlier and later than the bus tours for photographing the city in good light, do more touring on foot, rather than the bus, and skip lines and bottle necks that occur with managing 20-50 people in a group. We did take the Topkapi Palace tour on the last day and after experiencing the AMA included tour, we found ourselves very thankful we had arranged a private guide. I'll have more details as I get to the day to day details. But I would recommend using the AMA tours as an overview and if you want to get a more in depth look or independent view of the city, engage a private guide for at least part of the time.

[Hydrokitty]

This was the violinist at lunch in Bucharest...I thought he was very good!

 

[YOUTUBE]UAEj7G9NKEc[/YOUTUBE]

 

We had lunch in the same place!!! We weren't delayed, but there were buses all over the place. We ate upstairs and the food was delicious. We were also given the opportunity to sightsee on our own or do Palace. We took the Palace and had one of the official palace guides. BUT they TOOK our passports and gave us the ID tag, which had the corresponding # on it to the cubby where our passports were kept! We had the same type of bus tour too, drive around, this is this, that is that and try to get a picture through a moving bus window with reflective glare!!! I wish we could have gotten out at their Arc de Triomphe and at the Church, that was gorgeous.

I know exactly what you mean about "just running out of gas"...happens to me on every trip somewhere around the mid-trip point....my body just shuts down and screams at me to "either give me some time off, or you'll be sorry" and I listen! :D

[Hydrokitty]

Disembark

 

The time had come to disembark, which is always sad, to say goodbye to the crew of the ship and new friends. Many people were making their way to Istanbul, so we knew we'd be seeing many of them there, including our wonderful tour manager, Matyas.

 

Here's how what our days with AMA included:

 

Day 1 Disembark/bus to Bucharest (1 hour)/ fly to Istanbul/check into hotel Intercontinental in Taksim Square.

 

Day 2 Istanbul City Tour was offered in the AM by AMA, free time PM / The bus folks arrived at 7 PM (they were expected at 5, but were running late)

 

Day 3 Morning free time while bus folks had the Istanbul City tour / Optional Turkish Delight tour in the PM for both fliers and bus folks (we're all together now!!)

 

Day 4 Topkapi Palace tour was offered for everyone in the AM / optional Bosporus cruise was offered to all in the PM

 

Day 5 The tour manager had a very well organized departure schedule based on everyone's individual flight arrangements.

 

However- we did NOT take the included City Tour or Turkish Delight tour...we had arranged for 2 full days with a private guide our TA had found for us. We chose this so we could go out earlier and later than the bus tours for photographing the city in good light, do more touring on foot, rather than the bus, and skip lines and bottle necks that occur with managing 20-50 people in a group. We did take the Topkapi Palace tour on the last day and after experiencing the AMA included tour, we found ourselves very thankful we had arranged a private guide. I'll have more details as I get to the day to day details. But I would recommend using the AMA tours as an overview and if you want to get a more in depth look or independent view of the city, engage a private guide for at least part of the time.

 

We were in a hotel in Bucharest, since our ship was docked at Constanta, and our departure time for the airport was 3:00 a.m.! Vantage arranged for us to have a box breakfast, which was actually very good.....but the most surprising thing to me was upon arrival at the airport at 4 a.m.: EVERYTHING was open and running! We went right to LH lounge, which was small and empty, and when we came out of restrooms, found a pot of coffee and plate of breakfast cookies on our table! all the shops were up and running and I had 2 hours to finish shopping! Usually when we arrive at Frankfort at 5:30 a.m. from NY, nothing is open except the BC lounge, which opens at 5:00 a.m.

 

Don't you just LOVE European hotel bathrooms!! :D

 

I loved Istanbul. We were there for two nights on our Greek trip and it was wonderfully crowded, noisy and exciting! You didn't mention Haji Sophia or the Blue Mosque.....I hope you got to see them as well as the Topkapi.

[Familygoboston]

Istanbul

 

Our flight arrived around noon, but by the time we got through city traffic and to the hotel, (about a 20 minute ride with no traffic, it was an hour with traffic, but we enjoyed the overview of the city!) it was after 1 PM. We asked the AMA rep where to get a quick sit down lunch, and then we planned to explore Taksim Square and and Istiklal street, which were withing easy walking distance. The rep recommended Faros on Taksim, which is just a few steps from the hotel and offered excellent brick oven pizza and all kinds of sandwiches and local beer!

 

Faros for lunch; to get an idea, our lunch with pizza, a panini and bottled water and a local beer was the equivalent of $29 USD with the 10% service charge included.

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we walked through Taksim Square to Istiklal St. We couldn't believe how busy the street was, and what a sea of humanity there was there!

 

 

 

Don't be THAT guy!

 

Before we left the hotel, the AMA rep told us cryptically "if a shoeshine guy drops his brush, just ignore it". I had the feeling I was in some kind of spy movie and I was supposed to drop a message to him and reply..."the bird flies east in the morning". The tourism pros don't really want to talk about street problems, but they also want to warn folks.

 

We figured it was some kind of tout scheme, and we probably had enough experience to know to ignore it, but it was helpful advice. Not 3 steps out the revolving door of the IC a "shoe shine boy" walked past us quickly, as if on his way somewhere and "unknowingly dropped" his brush at our feet as he bustled past. Jeff and I looked at each other but never broke our stride. After about 1/2 dozen steps, he realized he didn't have a mark, and reversed to claim his brush (the one he hadn't noticed falling in the first place:rolleyes:)

 

Once we got to our restaurant we could see 3 of these "shoe shine boys" working their scam on Taksim Sq, repeatedly dropping their brushes "accidentally" at the feet of tourists, and they are quite good at making it seem as if they have "lost" something they need and rely on tourists good intentions to pick it up and say "hey, you dropped your brush!" They work this area because most of the folks arriving from out of the country by train, are in Taksim and need to walk with their rolling luggage to the Taksim Metro station to get to wherever they plan to go next.

 

Most people knew to ignore them, but we saw one young Chinese couple (maybe honeymooners?) lugging colorful roller bags, get sucked in right in front of the window of our cafe. The young tourist picked up the brush and hailed the shoe shine boy to return it. That was when the scam starts- the guy who just understood enough Chinese to know his mark had his brush to return, :rolleyes: suddenly doesn't understand the word "no" in any language when it comes to wanting a shoe shine!

 

The "shoeshine boy" grabs the brush back and begins brushing the shoes of the "mark". In this case he's wearing a snazzy pair of Adidas suede sneakers that ...umm...don't need to be shined! He was standing there looking helpless, when his wife realizes what has happened. She figures if they are about to be suckered into a shoe shine, she may as well get a photo opportunity out of it. As she uses her smart phone to capture her sheepish husband, both she and her husband have let go of their suitcases on the busy side walk.

 

A second "shoe shine guy" begins to shine her shoes (again, not any kind of shoe that "need" a shine) while the first guy is hitting up the first mark for his "pay". We watch as the young tourist OPENS HIS WALLET ON THE STREET, to show the tout what's in there, and lets the tout pick through all his cash in the wallet to select which bill he wants!! (hands are still not on the roller bags, either or both of which could have been rolled off by another scam artist at any moment!) We watched as the fellow chose a 20 TL note for himself (I am watching thinking..."No, No, NO! DON'T give him more than a 5 or a coin!!") Luckily, the young tourist finally shakes his head and hands the guy a 5 TL note and is on his way. He is lucky that the guys working the scam are not working with anyone who would a) snatch the phone, b) roll off with their luggage or c) snag the whole wallet.

 

We felt like we had just watched a "how not to.." video about arriving in a foreign city!

 

The good news? The next day there was no sign of those guys in the square. Later we talked to our private guide about this, and he was a little more forthcoming about the situation. He explained that the reason the Chinese tourists were not victimized for more than 5 TL, despite making some really big mistakes, is because the Turkish government has really cracked down on any kind of petty street theft. The penalties are much harsher, and that was good for the tourists, who were lucky not to lose their wallet or luggage. And it's good for all of us who want to visit Istanbul. Other than a few Syrian refugee mothers and children (who were not aggressive at all) We feel we see more homeless, untreated mentally ill and substance abusers on the streets of Boston than we saw in Istanbul. We never felt unsafe or like we had to take any more than the normal precautions one would take in any city.

 

Do we need to review those precautions?!?; after seeing that young couple on the street, I think we do!!!

 

Be very careful about keeping your eyes and hands on your luggage in a busy place, never remove and open your whole wallet on the street, (we carry small bills and change in a small clip wallet or cross body bag) and be very careful with holding cameras and smart phones out away from you for photos. (Jeff and I have a policy of when he is concentrating on a photo, I am usually standing behind him, watching his back.)

 

I'm sure most of you could GIVE this lecture! But hopefully, just one person learns how to be a little more street savvy, wherever they travel!

[Familygoboston]

Istanbul- Taksim Sq and Istiklal St

 

We returned to the hotel for a swim and shower and then went out in the evening to find dinner. Our friend Lisa, had found a nice restaurant for lunch and she waked with us to show us where it was, but we decided since it was such a nice night, we would eat at one of the street cafes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cafes and restaurants are mostly set up on the side streets radiating off of Istiklal St. We picked this one; it was very good, but not our best meal of the week, but we particularly liked the soup, which the proprietor told us his "mama make"! Over the next several days, we and our fellow travelers would try several little cafes and restaurants off of Istiklal and we had many very good meals, it's hard to find a bad meal there!

 

If you'd rather have street food, there are lots of places to eat- plenty of kebap places, where meat is prepared on a large vertical brazier and "shaved" off and put in a sandwich. Umm, yum! This is a variation of sis kebap (chucks of meat on a stick) that we are more familiar with in the US. We tried these and had no trouble with any of the street food we tried!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Street vendors- Roasted Chestnuts

 

 

 

 

 

Kids playing on the Tunel in Taksim, until the conductor chased them off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the IC, an easy walk, and very safe. We got settled in for an early night because we planned to meet our private guide at 9 AM the following morning in the lobby while our travel mates took the city tour. (one advantage of the "fliers" is that they had their city tour with only 4 people in a small van...which was the size of a private tour, even if the itinerary was already set.)