Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 28

Tuesday/Wednesday: Excited and enthusiastic we arrived early for the flight, which was delayed more than one hour leaving San Francisco. The fun of it was that we – meaning the crowd of folks scheduled on the flight – moved gates twice, each time getting to a higher number – 95, 97, 101. There was some fear that the plan was for us to walk to Istanbul in stages, but that proved to be untrue as we boarded, settled in and took off for our 12 hour 15 minute flight. Peggy slept most of the way while John watched all the movies he would never buy but was curious about. Peggy made a number of friends with the crew (a crew of 18 for this Boeing 777) by asking them to help her with her Turkish. The ... read more

We spent the day visiting Topkapi Palace and the Archaeology Museum. Since it was Saturday, we were a little concerned about the crowds being a terrorist target, but there was tight security to get onto the Palace grounds and more to get into the Museums. A helicopter was even circling over head. When we got back home tonight, we discovered that we had missed seeing a State Department warning: "The U.S. Mission in Turkey would like to inform U.S. citizens that there are credible threats to tourist areas, in particular to public squares and docks in Istanbul and Antalya. Please exercise extreme caution if you are in the vicinity of such areas." We are glad we didn't see the warning before we went, since it would have only made us more worried. We were very safe ... read more

Last night we ate in a restaurant on a street up hill from our apartment. It was full of young tourists from all over, but no Americans that we could see (or hear). This area is interesting: downhill from our apartment are many, many electrical supply shops. Most are very small. Up the hill from us, there are mainly guitar shops with young hipster clients. On streets adjacent to the guitar shops, there are trendy restaurants and boutiques. We seem to be right on the transition line! This morning we walked down the hill to the tram station and traveled across the Golden Horn to the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. The first terrorist attack was in the square there, so there are many police and security checks to get into the mosque and museum. ... read more

We fly today from Seattle to Heathrow and then on to Istanbul, arriving tomorrow afternoon. We are staying in a beautiful apartment near the Goleta Tower. The recent acts of terrorism have taken a bit of the excitement away from this trip, but Istanbul awaits, with its history spanning so much of modern times, and its unique position straddling Europe and Asia. The original plan was to take a cruise ship (a first for us...) from Istanbul to Venice, but the cruise company cancelled the Istanbul portion, so we are flying from Istanbul to Athens to pick up the ship and continue through the Greek Isles, to Croatia, and then to Venice. We next travel in Italy and Sicily for 3 weeks....and then to Connecticut to celebrate my mom's 85th birthday... We leave behind our beautiful ... read more

(*old but very first blog post on my travels) My eyes light up in both excitement and curiosity, as I stand before the mighty grand bazaar, famous for its insane craziness. I enter a dream state where my senses are running wild, so many different smells and things to see, what on Earth does my brain register first? Then, Bang!, as I am brought abruptly back into reality as I am pushed and shoved by a few stray Turkish locals. As I quickly come to realize the crazy world that I just stepped my tired feet into, one particular Turkish man manages to catch my attention, "Such a beautiful lady, I wish to marry you" as I myself am coming to terms of my potential marriage proposal, another Turkish man speaks up "Oh he is lying ... read more