Imagine in your minds eye for a moment Bulgaria. We are betting that you did not conjure up picturesque villages with quaint little houses. We are here to tell you that you are correct. Our boat docked briefly at a village whose name we can neither remember or pronounce and you have never heard of. There was a rail yard next to our dock where coal was being loaded on rail cars. Lovely! Most of our fellow passengers left the ship for a full day bus tour to the hills of Bulgaria. We stayed on board and after a two hour cruise downstream we docked at the town of Rousse, Bulgaria. After lunch 14 of us went on a tour that started with a vigorous climb of about 160 feet up a steep hill to an area filled with caves. Monks lived in these caves in the 13th and 14th centuries. One of the larger caves served as the chapel for the monks. The walls and ceiling had been painted to represent scenes from the Bible. Not exactly Michelangelo stuff. We returned to the bus and journeyed to a present day Monastery which was the home to four monks. We a visited a non-descript chapel and the gift shop where a young monk tried to sell us rose oil. The tour ended with a walking tour of central Rousse. Our guided waxed poetic about the beauty of Rousse even comparing it to Paris. We could only see communist era architecture which we remember as not being noted for its beauty. There were two notable aspects to central Rousse that we must report. First, our guide pointed out an area on the main square with several cafes situated in a stand of trees. She said that she and her friends protested the ban on rock music in the '90's in this area by drinking and playing rock music loudly. She called the area "the shit" because all of the birds crapped on the protesters. Secondly, she pointed out a building that use to house a McDonald's restaurant. This McDonald's was the only one in the world to go bankrupt. We have no idea if there is any correlation between "the shit" and McDonald's going bankrupt. When we returned to the boat we found out that the full day tourists did not have a good time either.
Tuesday morning we disembarked out boat, the River Duchess, for the last time. We really enjoyed this river cruise. The staff, service and food were all excellent. We would certainly recommend Uniworld Cruises for anyone looking to go on a riverboat cruise. We have come to enjoy cruising because you can see multiple countries without having to unpack and pack every other day or so. The only downside is that you don't really experience the culture of the country you are in. You see the major tourist sites of a country and then quickly return to the American-like comfort of your ship.
Upon leaving the boat we boarded buses for an hour and a half bus ride into Bucharest, Romania. After a brief stop on the outskirts of Bucharest to use restrooms, we were back on the bus for what amounted to an hour and a half drive-by tour of the major sites of Bucharest. Once again we listened to a guide talk about her home town being "the Paris of the East" while, with a few notable examples, we again saw nothing but communist era architecture. We eventually arrived at a restaurant where we had a traditional Romanian lunch. It was good. From lunch we went to the airport where we flew to Istanbul. Flying is difficult at best. When you are with a group of 114 it becomes a nightmare. We suppose that under the circumstances the flight went well. We are in a large American style hotel, a Crowne Plaza actually. The rooms are small but we were use to that on the boat. After we got into our rooms we went out to dinner with the Johnson's. We had great fun dealing with local waiters and experiencing all of the energy in being in this exciting city.
Wednesday was a long day. We had a day long tour that included all of the major tourist attractions in Istanbul. We started at the Topkopi Palace, once the home of the great sultans. We had visited here before but Lyn and Don had not. They enjoyed the gems and sabres that were on display. We did visit the Privy Council which we did not do on the last trip. Of note here was a small room where a young man was singing the verses from the Koran while the verses he was singing were highlighted on a screen. We don't know if it was his intention to singing the entire Koran or just particular verses. Both of us were struck by how similar the verses he was singing were to verses from our Bible. Next we went to the Grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar was closed on our first trip to Istanbul so we were looking forward to seeing it. We bought lots of gifts (!) and Lynda enjoyed the negotiations of prices. We had lunch on our own at a small, local cafe not far from the Bazaar. Our final stop was at the Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, and Hippodrome, all within walking distance of each other. Again, we had seen these sites before but still were in awe of the two mosques. Hagia Sofia was originally a christian church but was converted to a mosque over 1000 years ago. It is now a museum. The Blue Mosque is still in use so that all women must have their heads, arms to the elbow, and legs to below the knee covered. Everyone must take off their shoes. Tim and Don both commented that they would like to have the concession for the plastic bags passed out to carry shoes in. The Blue Mosque gets its name from the beautiful blue ceramic tile used throughout the building. We were exhausted after leaving the Blue Mosque so we skipped the Hippodrome. Been there. Done that.
After a nap and a shower we were back on the bus for a trip to a local night club. It was actually a dinner theater that featured a four course meal while we watched Turkish folk dances including five belly dancers. The male Cossack dancers from the north of Turkey were particularly impressive but the belly dancers, while decidedly voluptuous, did not dance as much as contort the various muscles of their bodies. It was fun but not nearly as good as the show of folk dance we saw in Budapest. The food was mediocre at best, but, like the Moulin Rouge in Paris, you don't go there for the meal.
Today, Thursday, we were on our own. Unfortunately, Lyn had one too many glasses of wine last night and has been in bed all day with an upset tummy. Lynda had talked previously to Lyn about going to a Turkish Bath. Lyn did not express much interest so Lynda took advantage of Lyn's infirmary and took a bath at a near by bath house. Her bath included a thorough scrubbing of her entire body by the attendant, time spent in a jacuzzi, a full body oil massage and a 10 minute facial. Her bath took a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes. While Lynda bathed Tim and Don wandered about the area, found several restaurants to choose from for dinner tonight, and sat and enjoyed a coffee. When the men returned to pick Lynda up they found her in a state of relaxed euphoria. There is a bridge over a tributary of the Bosphorus River, the Golden Horn, that has restaurants located under the roadway. We found one with a spectacular view of the Bosphorus and the Asian part of Istanbul. The Bosphorus River is actually the dividing line between Europe and Asia. It was a beautiful day with a cool breeze off of the river as we had lunch and enjoyed the considerable boat traffic on the Bosphorus. After lunch we went to the spice market. It was less crowded today then we remember on our previous visit. Lynda was again in her element haggling away with the various shopkeepers. We left the market with several spices and other assorted goodies(!). Don tried to resist temptation but he gave in the the siren call of Turkish Delight.
 |
| dinner in Istanbul |
 |
| The Grand Bazaar |
This is the final posting for this trip. Hopefully Lyn will feel well enough to go out to dinner with us tonight. Uniworld has included airport transfers in our cruise and, unfortunately, they tell us we must leave the hotel at 2:50 a.m. tomorrow morning to catch our 6:15 a.m. flight. Neither of us is happy. We will arrive in Detroit at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. It will be another long exhausting day but it is a small price to pay to keep you, our faithful readers, informed. It's dirty work but somebody has to do it!
 |
| The Blue Mosque |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment