Saturday, May 3, 2008

Amazing Istanbul

Immediately upon ariving in Istanbul we Claire and I were struck by the cleanliness of the air, the presence of normal toinlets ( with toilet paper!), seatbelts in vehicles, and we were not sweating. Wonderful! That night we settled into our hostel - 6 beds with bathroom ensuite - and met our roomates - one lade from Australia and 2 girls from the US studying in Egypt ( the second night there were 2 more girls from the US studying in Athens. AFter a delicious dinner - bread dipped in yogurt, yellow cheese pide, and chichen sish (kabob) - we headed to bed to rest up for an eventful day of sightseeing.



Thanks to our wonderful guidebook we already had our day planned out, hitting most of the major sights. So after enjoying some apple tea and breakfast on the roof of our hostel - gorgeous view - we started out to see the sights. First we stopped at an old Turkish bath that is now a carpet showroom. Then is was on to Hagia Sofia - Wow!

No comments: