Sahil Resort Istanbul

... with a wonderful view of the Bosphorus, and Istanbul in the distance)

The things I have written here are only a portion of made we did in Istanbul, and they can't even begin to capture how interesting this city is, and how much we enjoyed it. There are so many little things.The city is just so alive and vibrant. The streets and sidewalks are always full of people talking (and not just in the tourist areas). 5 times a day you hear the beautiful and poetic sounding call to ...

... modern heart of the city, heir to the future of the country, pulsating with all the electricity of a cutting-edge international metropolis. Although the political capital sits safely in the heartland, this part of Istanbul projects itself into the world as Turkey's ambassador of art, entertainment, music, and education.Today Istanbul is home to 14+ million of the 65 million people living in Turkey, many of whom are poor village folk who've migrated to the big city out of ...

... windows came from Venice, but have now been replaced. The effect is still striking.

We spent five hours wandering through the three buildings comprising the Archeological Museum, where we saw some of the most incredible sarcophogi! There were many carved
marble statues, items removed from Troy, and a gorgeous building highlighting the development of the types of Iznik tiles. We were overloaded by 5 hours, so didn't even get to the basement area of items found in area near ...

... Upon our arrival at Ataturk Airport we watched live news coverage of Barack gazing at the spectacular dome of Aya Sofya and we couldn't help but smile... Turkey is not only rich in history and culture which is no secret but also unimaginably diverse, surprising and very beautiful. Minus the expected hassle or two in the big cities, its people were some of the most warm and generous I have encountered. Two whole weeks in the country and I don't think we barely scratched the surface. 

... at a rug store where we received a history of rugs and the knotting techniques.  Anita ended up buying a carpet while the rest of us drooled.  It's all a blur! For dinner, we ate at the hotel and while it was good, we decided that that was the last meal we would eat there on our trip.  Next up was downloading some of the pictures in the lobby while we chatted, laughed and caught up.  Needless to say, there was much yammering away!

... on the train to Livingston my excitement was building to a crescendo, it was palpable. The excitement had been with me on the plane from Istanbul, it slept beside me in the car park of Victoria coach station, it was beside me on the bus to Edinburgh and finally it was sitting next to me on the train to Livingston. Smiling widely a thought brought me back to the months previous when I was getting the ferry back to Paros. I was telling her then that I wanted to be with her and I was doing something similar again; whatever it might mean I want to be with her.

... nearby. When the tram pulled up, we were somewhat dumbfounded at the number of people in it. We were hoping that about 300 would be getting off at this stop so that we could get on. This was not to be. No made a move to get off the tram, the two of us, along with about 15 others chose various doors to try to squeeze ourselves into. It was like Trevor and I were the 6th and 7th slices of bread being shoved into a one-slice ...

... put all the other dancers to shame. He was in a league of his own and my mum wasn't too reluctant to stuff some money down his shorts at the end! All in all a great night that wasn't too expensive. But guys ..dont go with your parents! www.tashanarkat.com *************************************** ****** The Turks know how to sell. There is no pressure and they ...

... on the outside of my ears! Talk about a full service haircut! It was kind of frightening though. Alie and I parted ways at the airport the next day, after writing a ton of postcards and enjoying more time in Istanbul. We had just spent the extra day wandering around, getting laundry done, and enjoyed a delicious fancy meal to bid farewell to Turkey. I hung around the airport for about 6 hours, and then hopped on the Emirates flight to Dubai...next stop, Nairobi!!

... fresh bread, honey, sour cherry jam, peaches, watermelon, honeydew melon, and Turkish tea. Then the boat would pull up anchor to search for another place to stop during lunch. People would locate a comfortable resting place to enjoy the scenery and the fresh air or they'd take some sun on the top deck or at the bow. Once parked, it was back in the water to cool down, do water aerobics, or swim to shore to explore. The kids would jump from the deck doing cannonballs or ...