Short Straw & Kebabs

Short Straw and Kebabs

18^th May 2011

Istanbul has finally arrived! Mariner of the Seas will be staying overnight in Istanbul so we usually get the evening and morning off depending on how well our sales are doing and if we our hitting targets. In short, we weren’t doing either. 

Last night Reuben made a deal with us. The guys on gangway needed to get 1,200 images or more. If they reached their target we’d all get the next morning off. To ensure we got top whack we had two costumes – Stu dressed as the camel with Fabio shooting and Jeni as the dolphin and Luci shooting. David and Hernan were out later with the rail and Turkish flags.

Fede and I drew the short straws by the looks of things. My straw was by far the shortest! We were both on tour, Fede’s was five  hours while mine was ten!! I was doing the Classical Istanbul tour. 

After formal night and going to bed at 2am (or 3am in Fede’s case) the last thing you want to do is get up at 6am. On the bus I managed to fall asleep – nothing new there then. I had to try and get as many photographs as possible but no one really held out much hope. During these long tours, the guide whizzes around and you have practically no time to stop and look let alone have people stand together for their photo. In total I came back with a whopping 19 photos. Everyone was shocked when I said the amount of images I’d taken. I’d have taken more but there were only 20 people on my bus. Usually 40 people (give and take a little) will go on this particular tour.

To be fair it was pretty hard going but it was great being able to see some of the sights of Istanbul. Previously, speaking to my Dad he’d told me I must go to the mosques and Saint Sofia so I was pretty pleased I’d managed to get there…. Even if it's just to gloat and do the "Been There" chant (what else are daughters for?) I tried my best to get as many stock shots as I could to email the parents. Unfortunately I forgot to remove them from my memory card before taking it down to the lab. 

WARNING: If you're a cruise ship photographer, every time you take your memory cards to the lab, your memory card will be formatted, deleting everything on it. It doesn't matter what photos are on there, they will be deleted. It’s a royal pain in the arse, I can tell you!

During the day we stopped off at a Best Western hotel for lunch. The menu is interesting to say the least. Starters: rice, humus, bread and something that was in between a spring and sausage roll. Needless to say it was lovely. The main course was by far the best though. We had a “traditional Turkish dish”…. Kebab meat with rice and mash potato. Traditional and typical aren’t the words that spring to mind when I think of kebabs. In England, a kebab is the sort of junk food that you buy with your last remaining pennies after stumbling out of a night club as drunk as a skunk! Now I was eating the same in a nice hotel restaurant. It’s like going to a nice restaurant and getting McDonald’s. Things didn’t quite add up. I could help but break out into a smile.

Another highlight of the day, although maybe a random highlight, in one day, we crossed over to Asia, twice. Istanbul straddles the European and Asian boarder with the Bosphorus running in between. To cross the other side is an enormously long bridge, the Bosphorus Bridge, where the traffic, we are told, is always terrible. Most people live on the Asian side as it’s cheaper, nicer and safer while commuting to the European for work. The houses are very higgledy piggledy like they are in Spanish villages. Some of the building work could have bought a tear to even a “cowboy builder’s” eye.

I wondered how the others were getting on. It’s times like this when I miss having my mobile phone. Or should I say a working mobile phone? If I were in England or Spain I’d be texting or making a quick call to see how things were getting on. Not only that, but I’d be able to contact Becks a little more. Instead I'll to wait until I'm back onboard at 6pm.

Last stop of the tour was to the Grand Bazar. The tour guide gave everyone “free time” so everyone darted off to do their own thing. I was left standing there with my camera dangling around my neck and no extra photos. I gave up. There’s no way I could chase everyone around such a huge, bustling market. It was impossible. 

So, there I was in the Grand Bazaar with two hours to myself and I’d forgotten my laptop. I took the chance to put my headphones in and have a mooch around the world famous market. Passing one shop I saw a Tottenham Hotspur football shirt and thought of my Dad. They are all “fake genuines” and I was tempted to buy one and post it to Uruguay. Then I thought, what’s the point? The postage would cost more than a real football shirt. If I can get the right size, I’ll get one on our last trip to Istanbul. Presents for the Mama is easy, consider it done! I’m aiming to cover her fridge/freezer with magnets from all the countries I’ve been to. I’ve got to get Mama something else too, but I’m not 100% sure what. 

During my way through the bazar I saw pairs of funky, Turkish earrings. The price was cheap enough, but you can’t settle for the first price they give you. I got it down by 2TL (Turkish Lira) which is only about a euro. My haggling skills need improving. Having said that, paying 2€ for a pair of earrings is a bargain by anyone's standards, especially European. Thinking back to the U.K. if you'd found these earrings in Claire's or somewhere along those lines, you'd be paying around 8GBP.

Back at base Luci was still ill. I’m worried I’m going to catch her virus and it’ll make its way around the team. Once one member of the team has a bug or virus, you can be sure that it'll make it's way around.

The good news was that we had smashed our target by about 350 images so not only did we have the night off but also the following morning. No work until 5pm and then we were all in the gallery condensing and displaying images. Nice and easy, even if it's a little tedious, but you can't complain!

Luci and I headed out to our favourite Turkish place, Nargilem. It’s open 24/7, sells a wide range of weird and wonderful Turkish tea, no rip off prices and a fast internet speed. Stu was already there. I got to speak to the parents and contact a few people from England and Spain. 

The blog was finally updated too! I’ve been getting so behind with not being able to get online or working so much that I can’t even find time to type up the updates. It's either blog or sleep and I'm not going to lie, sleep wins 98% of the time! 

Luci left at about 1am, I was falling asleep so I ran back for a cold shower before heading back out again. Stu was doing his P3 competencies while I finished my P1 and started P2. By 4am my battery had ran out and we were shattered. I was determined to finish my P2 but no chance – it’d have to be tomorrow. We headed back to the ship for some much needed shut eye and arranged to meet tomorrow and finish off the competencies before heading out somewhere in Istanbul. How I love our 24 hours off in Istanbul!! 

 

Grand Bazaar, Istanbul, Turkey