On Tuesday we arrived in Istanbul. The flight was interesting because one of the airline stewards was dressed in a full chef’s outfit, including a hat. The food in Turkish Airlines “economy” was better than most domestic business class food we have experienced. Go Turkish Airlines!!
Our hotel is in the old city section of Istanbul near many of the traditional tourist sites. Clearly, there are not a lot of American tourists and our guide on Wednesday said that tourism was way down because of terrorist fears. The USA Turkey warnings really apply to the Syrian border area. So far in our 1 1/2 days in Turkey, we feel safe and are not concerned. The shop owners and others are aggressive but friendly and quite often hilarious, especially when they called David, “James Bond”! It is easy to joke with them and they seem to enjoy the back and forth.
We wandered through palacial gardens, loaded with tulip which is the national flower of Turkey. Shortly, the city is planting more than a million tulips as a city celebration. The next stop was the spice market which was full of great aromas. Just outside this market, there is a coffee store where the locals stand in long lines just to buy their coffee. We then visited a small mosque (Rushtem Pasha Mosque) that was built by a rich architect just to house his tile collection.
On Thursday & Friday we have separate trips, including 7AM flights, to Ephesus & Cappadocia. With a 5 AM pickup & returning late on both days, it should be quite an exhausting adventure.
