At sea on the way from Trabzon, Turkey to the Bosphorus and on to Lesvos, Greece. We are scheduled to make it to the eastern end of the Bosphorus about sundown, which should give us a lovely view of Istanbul at night as we sail by.

Today in Trabzon was interesting. The morning's visit to the Sumela Monastery was excellent. It is built into the side of a mountain and looks like something from Tibet or "Lost Horizons". This afternoon, while Anne iced her knees to recover from the very steep downhill hike from the monastery to the bus (there were also little mini-vans available; but many of us did the hike instead), Jim and I went into town to visit the markets. After Istanbul, where everything is very tourist-oriented, it was remarkable to visit a huge market area where there was not a souvenir or postcard in sight. Everything there, from fruit & vegetables to fish to bread to cheese to shoes to hardware to the most garish wedding dresses we have ever seen, was strictly for the local people. It was a good insight into the "real" life of the people here, something we seldom see on tours.

By the way, Anne, my sign-off on this series of dopey posts is your "Boy on the Black Sea", not your "Black Sea Boy". The latter is far too readily capable of being shortened to "BS Boy", which would be universally applauded as spot-on accurate.

Tomorrow is, at last, a sea day - ahh, sleeping in (no need to get up early for another power tour), Bloody Mary's by the pool, lunch, G & T's by the pool, trivia, Caiprihas by the pool, cocktails at Galileo's before dinner with the LCT crew, forgetting the whole rest of the evening due to the aforementioned indulgences in strong spirits.

Last night at dinner, I forgot to try to eat my steak with my fingers, in keeping with the tradition set by the drunk guy a couple of nights ago. But since I was eating wienerschnitzel, which has a breading, it would not have been much messier than eating fried chicken with one's fingers and therefore wouldn't really have been an etiquette faux pas of sufficient enormity to bother posting about (or for you dangling preposition fanatics - of sufficient enormity about which to bother posting). Tonight, prime rib's on the menu. Now that should be something worthwhile to try eating with one's fingers.

Assuming I don't get chucked off the boat during dinner tonight for grotesque displays of unconventional table manners, I'll try to post again before we disembark in Athens. Much will depend upon my state of mind and body after the tour to the ouzo distillery on Lesvos.

Cheers, Your Boy on the Black Sea