Day 8 (Sunday, May 21, 2023) - Istanbul, Turkey, Celebrity Beyond 12 night Mediterranean Cruise

 Day 8 – Istanbul, Turkey (May 21, 2023)

Arriving into Istanbul was really exciting for us. This was the highlight of our cruise for us as we had never been to Istanbul and were really looking forward to seeing the sights – especially the Hagia Sophia. It was a late arrival – 11 am so we got up kind of late and had to actually eat at the Oceanview Cafe (buffet) for breakfast. The difference between eating at the buffet and in the Retreat restaurants is quite a bit. Luminae for breakfast is our favorite so far and where we ate at the most despite the long hike from aft to forward and then climbing 9 flights of stairs. The food at Luminae is more consistently prepared. I really didn’t think you could mess with eggs and bacon much but I was wrong – the food at the buffet was sub par and we missed the crisp bacon at Luminae. The hash browns were pretty good. I had a brioche roll (more roll than brioche) but couldn’t find anything other than strawberry or orange jam. First world problems.

We finished breakfast and then went up to the pool deck to see our surroundings and marveled at all the mosques. Seth said “see, here’s a mosque, there’s a mosque” to which I answered “Everywhere a mosque mosque”. LOL.

We docked in Istanbul and there was a mad rush to disembark when they made the announcement. The cruise terminal was huge and really nice. We walked and walked and walked going through multiple levels, down long halls, and through “passport control”. Celebrity had provided everyone on board with a bar code that had to be scanned to get off and back on the ship. We found our guide, Polat, waiting for us just outside the terminal. 

We walked briefly and then got in a van that took us about 2 miles to the part of the city where all the sites were: Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, and Hagia Sophia were all within walking distance of each other. We went to the palace first which reminded me a bit of the emperor’s palace in Beijing with an outer courtyard, inner courtyard and buildings for different purposes where the Sultan got dressed, had a “man cave”, or could hang out and listen to what was being discussed without having to be face-to-face with anyone. We got to view the huge 86 karat diamond in one of the buildings.

We next headed to get a bite to eat. Polat asked if we wanted to dine off the street or go somewhere “proper” so, of course, we opted for the latter. We walked for a long time and arrived at the Hotel Arcadia Blue where we went up to the top floor. The view was spectacular overlooking both the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. He told us that he wanted to have lunch first so that the lines to get into the Hagia Sophia might be shorter later in the day. We enjoyed our lunch but I did think it was a little pricey - the traditional kebab I had was supposed to be on a bed of eggplant mezze but I didn’t taste any eggplant at all. My entree was $28.

After lunch, Lisa and Wade decided to head back to the ship so we walked for a long time again back to a rug store where Polat wanted us to watch a sales demonstration but we weren’t interested in doing this at all. Our driver came and took Lisa and Wade back to the ship while Polat took us back to the Blue Mosque but, unfortunately, there was a call to worship and we were told the mosque would be closed for an hour. We walked over to the Hagia Sophia and I think the lines were a little bit shorter, but not by much, Polat was worried that it would also be closing soon for worship and we would be out of luck as it was already almost 5 pm and we had a dinner reservation at 6:30 pm. We had told Polat about our dinner reservation at the start of our tour.

What happened next was a little fishy to me but apparently Polat knew one of the other guides that was already in line at the Hagia Sophia and they were almost at the entry. Apparently, Polat got permission from this other tour guide for us to just “blend in” with his tour group and enter the Hagia Sophia before the gates closed. We walked right up towards the entrance and cut in line. The other tour guide didn’t complain or say anything, just carried on as though nothing was going on but I did hear some of the people in his tour group comment about us “cutting” although they really didn’t do anything about it.

Once we reached the inside of the gate, I donned the scarf I had brought (all women were required to have their heads covered which I found to be extremely sexist but didn’t argue) and we made a bee line for the mosque where we took off our shoes, placed them in the bins and then tried to get towards the front of the mosque but it was closed to everyone who wasn’t going to participate in prayer. Instead we found a spot to stand towards the back half of the room and Polat explained a lot of the areas and things to see in less than 3 minutes. TBH, I was unimpressed for several reasons. The mosque itself is impressive and I respect those who practice the muslim faith. The structure is almost 1500 years old. What didn’t impress me was the way Polat rushed us through the mosque and the unmistakable smell of feet.

We next made our way to the spice market. Polat said that rather than wait for the Blue Mosque to re-open, he suggested we go to the spice market and then visit a mosque that had even more blue tiles than the Blue Mosque had. We rushed through the spice market and stopped at one of the last booths where one of the salesmen tried hard to get me to buy some spices. I wasn’t prepared to make any purchases at this point.

I need to give several bits of feedback to Kensington – the issue with lunch being so late (or no lunch scheduled at all), the lack of communication about Lisa’s accessibility issues, the less-than-stellar guides we had. We really didn’t like the sales push in Istanbul (for rugs or spices) and vowed that we would make it clear that we were not interested in rug demonstrations or shopping in our next port – Kusadasi.

We went to the Rustem Pasha mosque which was interesting. More tiles per square foot than the Blue Mosque but it was a relatively small mosque. By this time it was almost 6 pm and our dinner reservation was at 6:30 pm so we asked Polat to have the driver drop us off at the restaurant. We had planned to just catch a taxi back to the terminal after dinner but Polat explained to us how much easier it was to just walk back to the cruise terminal. He said he didn’t trust the taxi drivers anyway.

We got to Nicole restaurant – it was fortunate that Polat was with us – we would have had a little bit of trouble finding it on our own. We thanked Polat and our driver and headed in to the renovated Tom Tom suites for dinner at Nicole. We were a little bit early – just before 6:30 which is when they open – Europeans eat dinner SO late – usually after 7:30 or so. We took the elevator upstairs and they greeted us and seated us right away. We weren’t the first ones there. We were seated near the window with a nice view of the water and mosques. It was pleasant with the window open and a little bit of a breeze.

Dinner was really good and the wine pairing was outstanding – one of the best wine pairings I’ve had in a while. After dinner, we walked back to the cruise terminal and re-boarded the ship – it was almost 10 pm.

Next post:  Day 9 - Monday, 5/22/23 -Istanbul