World Cruise Day 115/152 - Sea Day - Happy Easter! We've got lies, bunnies, tilts, and subs!

Cruise day: 115/152

Ports days: 53
Sea days: 62
Countries: 20
Continents: 5
Ports: 39

I am more than a little upset with Viking!  I have been on this ship for 115 days and have put faith in what they have been telling me.  Now, I find out that Viking tells lies - lies, I say!  For example, look closely at this.

 

I enjoyed a Ceasar Salad based on their labeling and then I found out that Viking had misled me.  Guest relations will hear about this! This did, however, fit in with my diet of eggs for breakfast - Cadbury, of course.

It is Easter Sunday here on the Viking Star and the World Cafe was all decked out for a special brunch. Ice sculptures and decorative bread greeted diners at both entries.

The port side entry

The starboard side entry

Loaves and fishes - well, more correctly a loaf and a loaf that looks like a fish

Assistant Cruise Director, Damian, was hopping around

Bartender extraordinaire, Aaron, with piles of Bloody Marys and Mimosas

For the more health-minded, beet juice, carrot juice, and apple/celery juice

Hot cross buns and other types of bread

Hi - can I please get a little parmesan, and if it isn't too much trouble, could you bring it in the form of The Colosseum?  

Then had breakfast food in the morning and then started adding lunch fare early for brunch.  Nobody cares about photos of the lamb, roast, chicken, roaster potatoes, and such, so I'll cut to the chase - dessert.

Nobody could explain to me why some of these are "tarts" and others are "tartlets".  I looked it up.  They are the same thing, except tartlets are typically smaller versions of a tart.  So I'm stumped.

In any event, they were delicious!

We had bridge today but no trivia.  This morning, Viking held an Easter Service.  That moved a lecture, so the lecture took the venue where trivia is normally held.

Arlona had art class today, this time focusing on mosques and minarets to capture the atmosphere of Istanbul's skyline.

The inspiration

Arlona's excellent interpretation

This is the path we are sailing. Unfortunately, with temperatures in the low 50s, intermittent rain, and most importantly, winds of 45 knots or greater, it simply wasn't a great day for photos.

We sailed from Kuşadası right at 5PM yesterday and have been heading essentially north through the Aegean Sea.  Around 3PM, we will hit The Dardanelles, also known as the Strait of Gallipoli, connecting the Aegean Sea in the southwest with the Sea of Marmara in the northeast. At its narrowest, it is only about 3/4 of a mile wide. It is part of the continental boundary that splits Turkey between Europe and Asia. We'll transit the 38-mile passage in about three hours, give or take. While in the strait, we will view Turkey's European Gallipoli peninsula on the port side and Turkey's Asian Troad peninsula on the starboard side.

The sea was moving - not violently, but there were lots of whitecaps

Entering the Dardanelles Strait

I thought the following monument looked cool, but I couldn't get a good feeling of its size. That is until I zoomed in and saw people - wow, this is huge! It appears to be the Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial.  It commemorates the 253,000 Turkish soldiers who participated in the Battle of Gallipoli and their service to their country.  This battle took place from April 1915 to December 1915 during World War I.

I thought this was interesting

Thanks to Google Translate, I can tell you that this says:

STOP PASSENGER
This land that you came unknowingly and stepped on is a place where an era has sunk

I looked all over for references to see what this means, but all I could find were other photos of it.  I believe it is also a reference to the Battle of Gallipoli.

As we were sailing, it sure felt like the ship was tipped pretty far to port.  But, you can't always go by feelings and without a solid reference, it's tough to tell for sure.  Then, I wandered up on deck 7 in the pool area.

See all that water?  Where do you suppose it came from?  Talking with friends who were sitting in there, when they noticed the ship was starting to move, one of them started up the level app on their smartphone and calibrated it to level.  Then they all watched as the ship tilted four degrees to port and stayed there for a while before tilting to starboard and then returning to fully upright.  This is what we felt in our stateroom - it felt like we were tipped.  Four degrees isn't a lot, but it is certainly noticeable.  Want to know what else notices that amount of tip?  The water in the pool!  All the water in the photos above came out of the main swimming pool.  There was water everywhere, including on top of some of the tables, and a frantic team of the excellent crew, mopping, squeegeeing, and generally cleaning up before the dinner crowd would be walking through.

Think that's exciting?  Wait, there's more!

We got a call from friends that were up in the Explorers' Bar (thanks Kathy & Steve!) - "Get out on the starboard side - there's a submarine!"

It was a Turkish sub that was just cruising along with us.  They had what looked like a crew of three or four up top and scanning the area with binoculars.  It isn't every day when you spot a submarine in the wild.  That was cool.

Dinner tonight featured what I hoped for - ham, applesauce, green beans, and mashed potatoes.  It was everything I wanted in an Easter dinner.  Arlona was not as hungry and had a cup of mushroom soup.  After she finished it, she said it was good enough that she went back and got another cup.  She also got some breadsticks - they were amazing.  I've been pretty disappointed in the breadsticks on this cruise - goofy flavor and just dry.  But these - well, they felt like they were made from croissant dough that was rolled into a breadstick.  They were flakey and essentially dissolved when you bit off a piece.  Am I waxing too poetic about a breadstick?  Anyway, dinner was great.

After dinner, we attended the second show by mentalist Marc Paul.  He was once again entertaining and had the audience wondering what just happened.  It was fun.

Tomorrow morning will find us in Istanbul, Turkey.  We have a tour of the great edifices of Turkey and that includes a visit to the famed Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazzar.  Tomorrow evening, Viking has put together an extra excursion to hear the Antioch Choir performing in the Sultan Adile Palace. We're looking forward to a full and fun day tomorrow.