Good evening from Istanbul.

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A quick summary of how we got here:

We left Athens on the 5th for Thessaloniki. We went by train through central Greece, weaving through the countryside past all sorts of beautiful scenery. Julıe wasn't feeling very well though, and the train ride only made it worse. As for Thessaloniki, it's actually a very nice place. I do regret we didn't see as much of it as either one of us would have liked, but it was a good time. We did a lot of walking around town and visited the local Byzantine museum. The White Tower, the famous landmark of the city, didn't seem to be open when we were there, so we couldn't go in. The food was nowhere near as good as in Athens though. We had a partıcularly bad outing at one restaurant. It had a nice atmosphere, but Juls said she prayed God would take her tastebuds away.

We booked an overnight train to Istanbul on Frıday, the 8th. We didn't have anything to do though, so we went to the train station around 1pm. We were waiting at the cafe there, and the smoke was so thick in that room that it made you forget what a breath of fresh air was like. After three hours, we had to get out. We did what we should have done from the beginning and checked our bags into a storage place they had at the station. We found a nice little steakhouse for dinner and killed our time there.

For anyone who has never ridden on an overnight sleeper train, it's an interesting experience. I almost fell off of the top bunk twice. And then as we were crossing the border from Greece into Turkey, which was around 4 in the morning, the train officials came pounding on everyone's door for their passports. They took them, had them stamped for our exit, then gave them back to us. A little while later, same deal. Except this time, Julie, myself, and a few other people had to get off the train in the cold night to get our visas. Ours were only 15 euros apiece, but a Canadian guy had to pay 45! The guy giving the visas out replied to his protest, "because you (Canada) are weak!" We all got a good laugh out of that. We ended up in Istanbul around 930 on Saturday morning. I can't tell you how geeked up I was pointing out the various landmarks as we passed them.

Istanbul is a wonderful place so far. The hotel we're stayıng at is excellent. The people here are the most helpful we've dealt with, and then some. While we haven't ventured out of the Sultanamhet area yet, we've had a good time. The Hagia Sofia is amazing, of course. I'll write more about it later. We also went to Justinian's cistern and to the Archaeological museum. We're just getting started though. Looking very forward to it. Will add pictures when we can.

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Photos

Hagia Sophia
Julie wasn't smiling when I proceeded to drag her inside for almost two hours

Mosaic from Hagia Sophia
A beautiful mosaic of Justinian and Constantine from around the 10th century