Our plan for the day consisted of going to Turkey's "Grand Bazaar" and then to attend our second party that night. After getting a little direction of how to get to the bazaar we jumped on the tram just a couple blocks from the ship. Just a side note... Turkish men smell really good! Well not really, especially when your riding a tram packed full of them... I re-named the tram the BO train! Anyways after about 10 minutes we arrived at what has become one of my new favorite places... again not really, it's actually one of my new LEAST favorite places! The Grand Bazaar consists of 4400 shops with owners that want your money! 4400 shops may sound like a lot but they actually repeat pretty much every two or three shops... all carrying the same items. So after spending close to two hours at the bazaar it was time to head back to the ship and get ready for that's night event.
After the tram ride and walk back to the ship we got in around 4:30, relaxed a bit and began getting ready for the night. Once 6:30 rolled around we headed out to the buses waiting to take us to the event.
The event took place at the Cıragan Palace about a five minute drive from the ship. This was our second of the three "big" events that we're having. They completely reserved the "palace" side of this now hotel, sitting right on the Bosphorus, which is the water chanel dividing Europe and Asia. When the bus pulled in there was a Turkish band performing and some other misc entertainment! We got out and watched a bit of the entertainment and headed down the red carpet, up the stairs and into the palace! Walking through the doors there were a line of waiters on either side... one side with red/white wine and the other with fresh watermelon juice with a big slice of watermelon in the glass. We grabbed our watermelon juice and began touring the rooms of the palace where in each room they had different entertainment reflecting the times of the palace.
Once 8:15 rolled around they opened the doors to the outside portion of the event, again this part sat right on the water! Pictures will better describe it, but they had a DJ, dance floor that lit up, lights everywhere and about ten video screens displaying video from the several cameras they had. We started by finding a seat then made our way through the Turkish buffet... which was actually pretty good! After relaxing for a bit the big "O" gave a little talk and then the performances began! Dancers began to flood out from everywhere and line up on the stage they had that ran the length of the waterway! Fire dancers made their way out next and then towards the end fireworks began firing off over the water! The fireworks were amazing.. imagine a grand finale going on for 10-15 minutes, we were so close ashes were falling over us. Once the fireworks stopped the DJ started and so did the dancing. We left the event around midnight and headed back to the ship! Oh yeah mom.. we were able to get a picture with your favorite doctor, in fact we actually talked with him for a couple minutes... nice guy!
Well that wraps up our first day in Istanbul... Hope everyone is doing good, talk to you tomorrow!
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