After boat drill today, I hit the shore with a goal of showing Eric and Pieter around Izmir. Eric hasn’t been since the first time we went together a month ago and Pieter had yet to go ashore, so I was commissioned with leading them to cheap shoes and Zara. :) I can proudly say that I have visited more Zara’s and H&M’s in Europe than I have in the U.S. HA! It was pretty awesome knowing my way around, in general. We walked through the bazaar that I’ve been to each time and they each ended up with some fantastic shoe purchases. Although, they’re definitely good deals, they still pale in comparison to downtown L.A. I just can’t justify spending much more than I would there without a real need for the item. I bought some clothes at H&M that I did need for the ship, but other than that, I’ve kept it pretty minimal. Food is much more important to me and I’d rather spend on the overall experience of being somewhere (museums, taking a water taxi in Venice, etc….) Anyway, after those missions were accomplished, we headed to see something new for all of us – the Kemeralti Bazaar. I read that this was the traditional bazaar and well, who doesn’t want to experience a traditional Turkish bazaar?? We stepped lightly to get there and have enough time to shop before heading back.
Kemeralti didn’t end up being too “traditional”, but was certainly full of all sorts of cheap stuff to haggle over. Eric and Pieter both ended up in major haggle-matches and one almost happened to me, but I just walked away. I cannot be bothered with that nonsense, especially over knock-off clothing, lol! I’d rather stick to H&M and get my shoes at Shoeland in Northeast Plaza in Atlanta when I’m looking for a deal! :)
Eric was having trouble with his knee and took a taxi back to the terminal and Pieter and I walked along the Alcansak (the promenade along the waterfront) to find some food and respite. I had a pizza and Turkish beer – Efes – and we continued along the way back to the terminal and on board in the nick of time.
After a little rest, the three of us met up for dinner at the Great Outdoors and the cabaret show in Spinnaker. It was great in the new venue – more intimate than in the big theater, but sadly, it was the same line up of material that we’d seen in the previous show, so it was a bit of a let down. After their show, I got ready for the White Hot Party and went up with Eric to support the dancers in their performance. I had some wild hair and decided to stay and dance with the girls on cast for a little while, which turned out to be a lot of fun! They tried talking me into going to the crew party afterwards in the crew bar, but that would be just a bit too much for me to handle --- FREE drinking for the crew… just sounds like lots of crazy people doing crazy things, which is what I’m on vacation from to begin with :)
I did end up chatting with the Asst. Cruise Director, Ken, for a bit and we made the connection that not only did we both do drag seriously, live in Georgia (he’s from Savannah), but his drag mother is my granny (Niesha Dupree) and we are both great friends with the one and only miss Coti Collins. Since I’ve been here, the two other drag people I’ve met have also known Coti very well… what an insanely small world!!! WOW!
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