Topkapi and Hagia Sophia Mosque.
I have arrived. After a night in the Wyndam Petek hotel with other joining crew I have arrived onboard Seabourn Odyssey. Nice hotel but quite a distance from the city by the airport.
The journey to Istanbul was uneventful just as it should be. However getting through Immigration in the airport was its usual palava. 3 hours queuing. Then told I had the wrong visa. Rescued eventually by the agent and delivered to the hotel.
7am pickup and delivered to the ship. As soon as I walked onboard I felt at home. The familiar faces among the crew settled me in quickly. I took over from Captain Bathgate at noon and as we walked to the Colonnade restaurant for lunch the sky went very dark. Not good looking at all. I returned to the bridge to see a huge thunderstorm lash the ship with rain. Capt Bathgate soothed me by reminding me this was the first rain he had seen in 2 months.
Now we have left Istanbul and transited the Bosporus waterway. We are heading north on the Black Sea for Nessebur in Bulgaria. I took dinner with the senior officers, met some guests that I have known for a long time and wrote my blog.
It is good to be back among the people that I have known for some time now. 5 years for some of them. Lets see what the next 2 months brings.