Wow!  What a kind day for me!!! Finally the security of the ship to return to and thank God no more lugging that suitcase up and down stairs. I swear, Al has muscles he never had before and now I can climb stairs almost as good as normal people from all the practice. The day started with some real food that I finally recognized. We decided that since we had one more day in Istanbul and kinda new our way around the tram system that we would take the tram to t...

It has come to my attention that very often some of my plans, although well thought out beforehand, never come to fruition. This has been another city where my list of possibilities was greater than the list of accomplishments. Yesterday, our first day in Istanbul after disembarking the train, we spent the morning with the pharmacy and recuperation of our energy stockpiles. I had pre-purchased tickets to the Topkapi Palace prior to leaving home for about $60. ...

It's 1am and the train makes another stop at a desolate, seemingly abandoned station in the middle of nowhere. The sudden braking action of the aging train squealing in the darkness awakens me and I venture out into the hallway hoping to see a sign on a station to give an idea of our location. No luck. The guy next door is up too and we converse in a mixture of English and Spanish. He is from Mexico. He has traveled by train in Europe before but his firs...