Hey world!
Well, this morning I was awakened by the arrival into Izmir, Turkey's port at 7 am. Normally, that would be insanely early for me, but as I adust to ship time and life, I'm going to sleep around midnight and waking up at 7 or 8 every day now and it's quite nice, actually. Working at night for so many years now has altered my sleep schedule as some of you may know ;) The best part about this new schedule is that I actually get to eat breakfast while they're still serving breakfast!
After breakfast was the much anticipated weekly Emergency Boat Drill! Ummm yeah. Basically, once the majority of passengers had gone ashore, they sounded the Abandon Ship Alarm and all crew goes to their assigned muster stations. Since I'm a newbie, I don't have to really do anything except wait and watch the important people load up the lifeboats and take 'em for a spin around the ship. ;)
After drill, I had to finish filling out my Emergency Escape Route plan for the Safety Officer. We had to plan out two different routes from our cabin and workplace. They're pretty strict about this process, so it took a minute to complete this. Once finished, I grabbed a quick bite and met up with Eric to go ashore and explore Izmir!
TRAVEL FAIL! I only bought books and looked up info online about Italy and Greece. Oops! Forgot about Turkey, so.... yeah, I didn't even know how to say Hi, Thank You, and I'm Sorry - my key phrases - in their language. Few people there spoke much English, so it was much more challenging than in Piraeus or Venice for sure. Anyway, armed with our wits and some international sign language, we hit the streets and found our way to this really great sort of pedestrian and bike-only marketplace neighborhood. It was pretty huge, with tons of little stores (mostly clothing, shoes, and electronics) and sidewalk cafe's that were just beautiful to look at. There were alleys off the main drag that were PACKED with bars and nightclubs. This city must have an incredible nightlife culture! There were lots and lots of businessmen out (we were there around lunchtime) and tons of students. It was awesome to watch all the people, see the fashion and just observe what their lives are like. Not really much different from most urban centers in the states... just more attractive people... WOW! We found a nice pizza place and sat out on the sidewalk watching people and eating.
The most difficult thing was paying for things in Euros... Turkey has their own currency, the Lira, but they also take Euros. So it took us a minute to figure out the conversion rate, which is about half as many Euros into Liras. I ended up getting a cheap white shirt for the ship's weekly white party. Apparently, there is a great place in Izmir where you can get very nice suits tailored immediately for really cheap. Next time we go, there’s a dealer from the casino who’s supposed to show us where to do that.
We walked along the water on the way back to the ship and it actually reminded me a lot of south beach, with the line of restaurants and hotels along the waterfront as far as the eye can see. Walking back to the ship, I met the two nurses on board, who were fantastic! For those of you who know, one of the nurses reminded me of bartender Max at Blake’s in Atlanta! HA! Hopefully, I won’t need to visit the medical center, but it’s good to have friends on the inside :)
I attempted to take a nap, but ended up getting invited to have movie night before the white party event at 11 pm. Eric and I went over to the ship doctor, Pieter’s room to watch Harry Potter. He’s got his own cabin of course and just got the entire series on Blu-ray, so it looks like we’re going to start a marathon, which will be fun! I don’t think I’ve ever stayed awake for all of the first Harry Potter movie, especially being so worn out from the day’s adventures. But I did it! Eric had to split early to get ready to dance at the event and Pieter and I ended up watching youtube videos and “The Great Melt” segment from the BBC series, “EARTH.” After that, I was fully relaxed and ready for bed! I can’t wait to watch the rest of it, though, since I’ve heard so much about it. A few of the other segments take place in South Africa, which is where Pieter is from, so he was excited to see some familiar sights.
It’s getting more and more comfortable on the ship. I finally have found my way around, just in time for me to move rooms….Devil! Even though it’s only been 5 days on the boat, it feels like forever! Time passes rather slowly here, so I’m trying to space my activities out and really enjoy each one. I took the boy out of the city, but can’t take the city out of the boy!
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