First day (and a half) of travel
Well, I’ve been awake for almost 30 hours now and somehow it managed to become Wednesday without my ever noticing, but Kate and I have safely arrived in Istanbul. The three flights weren’t what I would consider “fun” - too many hours on a plane with loud children, loud Turkish talkers, and (worst of all) loud man who had a hole cut in his throat from some sort of smoker’s disease. Clearly I’m evil for being totally grossed out by the fact that I could hear any liquid he drank bubbling down the hole in his throat… but I think I’ll just have to be evil. On a happier note, Turkish Airlines official colors are apparently baby blue and pink. Awesome. Also, we were provided with the most useless purse full of random things ever - a pink shoehorn, slipper socks, and eye cover (etc!) The eye cover might have been useful had it not been light pink and therefore unable to block any light at all. Don’t worry, I’ve taken plenty of pictures.
For the most part we’ve spent the time in Istanbul walking around the Old City, seeing a few of the less famous mosques and unsuccessfully trying to avoid carpet salesmen. Normally when I’m travelling I have no problem avoiding touts, because you can just ignore them. When you’re the only non-tout on the road, that’s much more difficult, because they just follow you, for-freaking-ever! Now that I’ve realized resistance is futile, I have a new goal - see how much of the total tea supply in Turkey Kate and I can drink (provided, of course, by the touts, who just want to give you some tea! and look at this nice carpet…) We’re up to three glasses so far (each) but I’m sure more are still to come. I’ll keep you updated. Oh yeah, and I have some nice pictures of mosques. Well, let me restate that as pictures of nice mosques, as I can make no promise on the quality of my pictures.
Tags: 01 - Turkey
