Day 13: Sea Day

Trip Start Jul 05, 2008
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12
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Trip End Jul 19, 2008


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Where I stayed
Crystal Serenity
(Istanbul hotels)

Flag of Turkey  ,
Thursday, July 17, 2008

  The Dardanelles is a long narrow strait dividing the Balkans (Europe) along the Gallipoli peninsula from Asia Minor. So, depending on what side of the ship you were on, gave you either Europe or Asia as a view. Since we cruised both to and from Istanbul, we got to see both sides.
 
Although both sides are part of Turkey, the strait is international water.   The ancient city of Troy was located near the western entrance of the strait and the strait's Asiatic shore was the focus of the Trojan War. It was also the scene of the legendary Greek story of Hero and Leander.
 
Our last sea day was spent like the others. We went to Marlin Fitzwater's talk in the morning. This one was called "Stories I Tell My Friends."   I don't know why I didn't take my camera to get a picture with him. Brain Freeze, I guess.
 
In the afternoon, we attended the group dance lesson. We learned a little tango, which was neat because we didn't know any. We got a chance to practice it on the last two evenings and remembered what we had been taught. Keith went to his Spanish class and I started packing, which mainly consisted of folding clothes and putting them on the small sofa. It was another formal evening at dinner and it was the evening of the Captain's Farewell Reception. Free champagne is always nice. After dinner, we had to say goodbye to one couple from our table, as they had an all day tour on Friday and a 3 AM debarkation on Saturday.
 
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