Apricot Hotel Istanbul

Greetings from Istanbul! After a semi-long and uneventful Air France flight to Istanbul (via Paris) (during which Bianca has now become obsessed with Twilight and I enjoyed Quantum of Solace) we arrived unscathed at Ataturk International Airport. We are staying in Sultanahmet (or "old town" I guess) at a little hotel called Apricot run by a nice former guide named Hakan. Our room was super small but had a nice balcony view of the blue mosque. We didn't waste much time and headed out for a nic...

I entered Turkey on Oct. 13. More than two weeks later, and a year older, I am admittedly still a complete novice at navigating this country. But I can also talk with some confidence about what makes Turkey such a magnetic country. When I first considered travelling here it seemed like a rather exotic place. Goofy name, Muslim populace, a history I knew next to nothing about. Supposedly much more economical than the neighboring Greek islands. Imagine my surprise to learn (after I had arrived ...

I'll keep this short - but did want to post and let everyone know we arrived safely in Istanbul. Turkish Air was amazing! More leg room than most flights get in first class, and then good food AND good in-flight entertainment options. I choose learning how to count in Turkish. I still don't get it... Anyways it was pouring rain - but the good news is that it appears we beat President Obama by at least an hour. There were uniformed guards EVERYWHERE - lining the streets in the pouring rain. I...

First Full Day in Istanbul We woke up this morning to the call for prayer at the Blue Mosque. Then we promptly fell back asleep. We didn't really get moving until nearly 9 am. Our beds here are a little hard, but we were so tired I think we would have slept on a cement slab! Morganne and Jeff had both fallen asleep before I had finished my blog. Tonight we have had a big dinner - I'm afraid they will do it again! Our day of touring started out with "O" trouble! President Obama had the whole A...

This is a two day entry as I was too tired to finish my entry last night. Another busy day in Istanbul; however we are still having trouble getting up in the morning. It was 9 am before we rolled out of bed. I even slept through the 5:30 AM call to prayer. We went on our guided tour with the hotel owner, Hakan today. He took us in his car around the Golden Horn and onto the Asian side. We visited a park on the top of a hill overlooking the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara. It was a fantastic v...

~Yellow to all my friends~ Today we flew into TURKEY! I have only been here 3 hours, and I have heard the Muslim call to prayer and had a very filling dinner... the call was very unexpected, we where sitting in our room when we heard AHHLLAAAWWWWWSSSSSAAAAA! I almost fell of my seat! So for you all I got a video... After my slight heart attack dad smiled "get used to it. It's the call to prayer at the Blue Mosque!" By the way the Mosque is right outside our window! The dinner was very good an...

~Yellow to all my friends~ Well, today was our first full day in Istanbul. We went to the Grand Bazaar and the spice market. The Grand Bazaar was very over whelming, people where smoking every where you looked! Also the shop owners would yell at you to come in their shop, and once you went in they would not let you out! I got some AWESOME stuff! Like a light blue cotton shirt, a head scarf, two evil eyes, and a small bowl... For lunch dad and I had this cool sandwich wrap. The guy was standin...

~Yellow to all my friends~ Ok I will have to keep it short because our Turkish bath will be at 8:00 turkey time. Today we toured with Mr. Hakin, and went to dinner at Doy Doy. Mr. Hakin told us ALL about the Islamic cloture, and what they worship in the mosque. On our tour we went over to the Asian side of Istanbul. Did you know that Istanbul is the only city to span two continents? Well we went over to the other side... We where going to go into a fort but it was open every day expert Wednes...