Between Two Continents

Today represented our last day of relaxation before five straight days in port. We took full advantage of the opportunity to relax, recharge our batteries, and enjoy good food. After taking in breakfast, we headed to the Solarium to read a bit, before we headed to a shipboard lecture on the spice trade by a retired horticulturalist. I do not want to belabor the point, but suffice to say that we much preferred the other lecturer on board. We headed to lunch, where we ran into Nick and Fontaine.


After lunch, the four of us headed to team trivia. The theme of this set was movie quotes, and after a tiebreaker round, we were declared the winners. Our prize? Celebrity room key lanyards. Obviously, the budget for trivia prizes is not significant. The same lounge was set to host Name That Tune about half an hour later, so we hung around. Unfortunately, the results for this game were not as kind to us. The theme was deceased musicians and we performed decidedly poorly. Afterwards, I popped into the shipboard hot glass show for a few minutes. This was fascinating, and I hope to stay longer for a show on our last sea day next week.

Next up was the main event of the cruising day: sailing through the Dardanelles. This strait connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and the eastern side is Asia, while the western side is Europe, even though both sides are a part of Turkey. The picture to the left shows the European side in the foreground and to the left, with the Asian side in the background and to the right. There are also a number of war memorials from a number of different countries here (not pictured). For an hour or so, we wandered to different vantage points on the ship to check out the strait and its villages and scenery. Then we headed back to the room to prepare for dinner.


For dinner, we headed to the second of three specialty restaurants on the ship, this one being Tuscan Grille, an Italian steakhouse. I am thoroughly convinced that we picked the perfect day to eat in this restaurant, as it has its windows on the aft of the ship. With our table right by the window, we were able to watch both Europe and Asia pass us by as we left the Dardanelles and headed into the Sea of Marmara. For an appetizer, I had the Calimari Fritto Misto (best calamari I have ever eaten) and Sarah had the Saffron Risotto Croquettes, which she enjoyed. We both had Bufala Mozzarella and Tomato Caprese Salads, which were excellent. For the main course, I enjoyed a delicious rib eye steak and Sarah had a New York strip steak.

While all of the above food was perfectly prepared, the highlight of the meal was the dessert. Sarah had the excellent Toffee Panna Cotta, while I had Pistachio Marble Creme Brulee (shown to the right). Note the crystals in the center of the dessert. Curious about what they are? I was too. I started eating the dessert, and a (bit later, felt a weird sensation in my mouth. Then I heard snapping. Confused, I looked at Sarah. She asked what the noise was that she was hearing. The answer: pop rocks. Talk about a blast from the past! I would have never guessed to find that on a restaurant dessert. Shortly after we finished dessert, it was sunset. Below is a beautiful picture of our view of the sunset over the European side of the strait/sea from our table.

Following the large amount of food, we rolled ourselves back to our room and retired for the evening, to ensure that we would be well rested for our first day in Istanbul on tomorrow.