Seeing Stars

7/21/2009

My last day in Turkey was very relaxing.  It was nice to have five days in Istanbul not only because of its large size, but also because it allowed me to slow down a little and relax.  I started the morning heading toward the Blue Mosque with a group of friends.  We arrived after taking a detour through the grounds of one of the palaces, and proceeded toward the entrance.  All of the girls in our group put on scarves to cover their heads and shoulders, and made sure their skirts were ankle length while waiting in the line at the entrance.  When we got to the front, we all removed our shoes and went in.  It was similar to the other mosques, but much larger.
It was a mob scene inside.  The area up to the small fences that ask visitors to please not go any further was full of people, and everyone was snapping pictures and looking around.  I made my way toward the fence, and stopped to take a few pictures.  As I was looking around, I noticed that a girl that was having her picture taken looked really familiar.  At first, I couldn’t place her face, then I decided she must just look like someone I know, or maybe an actress.  As she was walking away, one of the girls I came with standing next to me said “did you see Anne Hathaway?”.  As soon as she said it I placed the face.  I had been standing mere feet from her, and not realized.  We quickly spread the word among the group we had shown up with of about 8 that Anne Hathaway was in the mosque, and everyone didn’t believe us at first.  When we exited, we saw her again taking another picture.  They believed us after that.
After our celebrity sighting at the mosque, we moved along toward the bazaar again, where we all tried to get rid of the end of our lira.  After our fill of the bazaar, we headed to the spice market, which was closer to the ship.  It was like a mini grand bazaar, but with Turkish delight, dried fruit and spices everywhere!  The sellers were just as friendly though, and there were a few free samples involved.  As we were getting ready to leave, one of the salesmen was trying to entice me to buy something.  I told him I was all out of lira, and he continued talking to me anyway.  He then asked if he could ask me a question, and I hesitantly waited for what it was.  He proceeded to inquire as to why American women all had such white teeth compared to other nationalities.  I laughed, and as a group we tried to explain, but he didn’t believe any of our answers. 
After the spice market, we sat around in the nearby square out front of the new mosque, and watched the pigeons and the several individuals selling bird feed, as well as all of the street vendors and foot traffic.  All in all, it was a very satisfactory last day.  We eventually meandered our way back to the ship so as not to be late for shiptime.  After getting on the ship, we were informed that we would not depart Istanbul until nearly midnight, and we would arrive in Varna by noon the next day, where we would be at anchor, and using tender boats to reach shore for most of the first day.  It sounds like Bulgaria will be a very fun country!