Hotel Villa Suite Istanbul

... I once opened my eyes and looked over to Marvin. All I could see was the top of his head sticking out from a nearly one meter high bubble cloud. I quickly closed my eyes again and focused on the massage instead. Clean, relaxed, scrubbed and kneaded you lie down again on the warm marble stone before being given dry cotton cloths to dry off and some tea to finish the bathing experience. And what a great experience it was ...

... southern coast. Our resort was a few hours away, and, having been advised to go upscale in Turkey, we did. We were told by the Israeli agent that this place would meet the "high standards of you Americans" (it appears that we are all rich Americans to them), and what we encountered was a monster-sized resort jam-packed with Russians, Brits, Turks, and Israelis. Tour package heaven, it appeared. Sure enough, this place had all the accoutrements-lots of ...

... out the immense Hagia Sofia, the Topkapi Palace, the Archeological museum, and the vast underground cistern, in addition to a few of the downtown neighbourhoods and the Grand Bazar. We also dined on tons baklava, and enjoyed one of the famous Turkish baths, at the Cemberlitas Hamam. Our stay here was really enjoyable, and relaxing (which was a bit of a surprise), and we'll definitely be back!

... it was for the grand opening of an Anatolian Restaurant. Len got in on the chef's group picture, in the background. We walked down this steep, steep hill, what a great move staying on the tram one stop to many coming here. It would have been quite the climb up this hill. Our walk up was an easier assent. Our next stop was to the Chora (or Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Fields) Church, back on the tramway, cross the sea and way into the burbs or ...

... lady kept motioning to Tracy to hand over our drinks. We thought maybe she wanted some of our drinks for herself but that just seemed weird. As it turned out she just wanted to keep all the used cups...a much more rational reason?!? Regardless of her motive, she must have been thrilled with Tracy's "little problem" because it added 3 or 4 extra cups to her collection. After navigating the public transit system into downtown Istanbul from the bus station ...

... for me to speak with women here, so I unwantingly stayed back. Soon enough, the girl returned to invite me over.

The women gave us rice, with a red sauce, wrapped in leaves. Then, they gave us the same rice cooked inside hollow peppers. We couldn't talk to them. But, for a while, we sat near their blanket, enjoying their company, enjoying their food, one of the Swiss girls and probably me with red sauce sticking to our top teeth.

Istanbul, Turkey modernoddyseus

... the many incarnations of Ataturk, and so many more wonderful things. Ata is a topic for another day - he was such a brilliant leader, the FDR of Turkey, and we all know how much i love fdr so ata is quickly becoming a fav of moi. Well, there it is. The muezzin just finished his calls and I feel mentally exhausted. I cant say it enough - i feel so lucky to be here. I think i can count in among some of my best accomplishments, along with my running the St ...

... Day. The two famous mammoth structures which instantly catch your eye as you traverse the land. Interestingly enough, the two mosques (well one is actually a converted church and one is an active mosque (blue mosque)) sit right across from each other and conveniently close to Topaki Palace which we visited yesterday. A little history lesson, the first building, as described by my wife was Haghia Sophia (an impressive feat of construction given the 537 date it was ...

We are back primarily to pick up our visas for Ýran, so lets start with that. Ýran is a tricky country to get a visa for: like Russia there is a sticky and slightly expensive requirement for letters of invitation and details about each day of your itinerary. Given that each day's news included references to Australia signing up to US plans for a bit of smote-by-missile it is hard to begrudge them a little extra paperwork though ...

... the journey especially when talking about things he approved of, so I assume my interpretation was correct).

We were dropped off when it became clear that the minibus wasn't going much further through the rush-hour traffic. Hopping into a taxi we were soon in the beautiful and historic old part of Istanbul. Walking in the shadow of the Blue Mosque, we found a hotel and were soon eating the standard Turkish tourist breakfast of boiled eggs, feta cheese, olives, bread and honey ...